Things Best Left Buried
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: It's funny how history tends to repeat itself. One moment you're searching for the fabled "dragon pearls," the next you have to fight for the fate of the Earth. Sometimes, things are better off left forgotten in time.
1. Things Best Left Buried

**This story is brought to you by Mysterious Prophetess and ShadowMajin**

...

Chapter 1: Things Best Left Buried

The sound of brushstrokes filled the air, sweeping aside dirt and dust that had long since lay dormant here. With every stroke, the grime was pushed aside, revealing dull colors that hadn't seen the light of day in ages. Of course, that meant the dust had to go somewhere,

A choked cough rang out, onyx-colored eyes began to blink rapidly to shield out the dust. Fortunately, nothing got into them and he was able to look at what was best described as a mural. Just the sight of it made a smirk appear on his face. Reaching to a pocket, the youth pulled out a notebook, the words Karato Son crudely written on the cover. Pulling out a pen that rested in the metal coil, he flipped open the notebook and began scribbling out his observations; after all, that's what a good archaeologist does.

Eyes glancing from side to side, Karato pieced together just what he was seeing, puzzling out the meaning behind the intricate design. Pausing for a moment, he then pulled out his digital camera and began snapping photos of the mural, for later study of course. It would've sucked to get home and not have anything to show for this trip.

It was then that something caught his eye. Hesitating, Karato slowly focused on a specific design, one of a sphere or orb with four stars on its surface. That...that couldn't be. He hoped it was, but he must have been seeing things. Hurriedly, the young man reached to another pocket and nearly ripped it out as he clutched at his recorder. Clicking the record button, he began to say:

"The emblem appears on every prominent surface, indicating that this is a temple of the former Suu Shin Chu Cult. With how dilapidated the ruins are and the fading of the paint, it would be logical to conclude that these ruins are from the short period of prominence this religion had during the Dark Ages. Evidence of looting is seen in marks on the walls, indicating there had once been a gold overlay to the symbol of the Suu Shin Chu." Karato pressed the stop button and pocketed the recorder before taking a few more pictures of the entrance chamber. He stuffed the camera in his bag as he glanced around the room, still in awe of what he had just found.

"Man, I was lucky that there were a few fruit bats left who worshipped this religion," Karato said stepping back and looking up at the ruined architecture.

' _Without their help, I'd have never found this place_ —' There was a sudden _click!_ Karato looked down to see his foot was on a stone that had sunken into the floor.

' _What the_ —' Karato caught movement out of the corner of his eye, prompting him to duck just in time for an arrow to barely skim over his head. The young man stood that way for a moment, his heart nearly beating out of his chest before he straightened up, panting as he realized the sunken stone he'd stepped on had to be a switch of some sort. Was...was this a booby-trapped temple?

' _You've got to be kidding me!'_ Karato thought as he took a step back. That's whenever he, once again, heard a now familiar _click!_ ' _Oh no.'_ Had he stepped on _another_ one? Windmilling his arms, Karato tried not to trip as he avoided more arrows as he took off running across the room, setting off multiple traps with each step; even zigzagging wasn't helping.

Left, right, up, down, _down!_ With a diving leap, he narrowly dodged a series of arrows, each one hitting a wall one after the other. ' _At last,'_ Karato thought, ' _I'm_ _free of_ _all those_ _arrow traps_ —'

He cried out as he tripped on an arrow he'd avoided being _acquainted_ with earlier. He landed hard on a larger tile and unfortunately heard a _snick!_

"Oh no," Karato groaned. He'd accidentally set off yet another trap. As he sat up rubbing his neck he looked over to see a _huge_ stone rolling his way. Frantically, Karato scrambled to his feet.

"Oh, come on!" He dodged to the side and landed on a tile that already seemed have been depressed by an earlier step, except it sunk even lower. Karato heard a few clicks, which made his stomach drop.

"Another one!" Karato prepared to outrun another barrage of arrows when he felt something pull on his shoe a second too late: one of his shoelaces had gotten snagged on an arrow embedded in the ground. Feeling his foot pulled back, the young man lost his balance and crashed onto the floor; just then he felt something pass over his back and heard it thud into the wall. Looking up, Karato found he had just barely avoided being impaled by a spear. It was then that Karato remembered his shoelace was still caught on the arrow. He began to tug at it to get free. One tug too hard and heard the dreaded sound of a _click!_ again. Karato had landed on a switch on his back for the second time that day.

He looked up to see a spear flying right at him. The archaeologist let out a cry as he rolled out of the way of the spear, only to set off the triggers for two others, forcing him to continue to roll about on the dust and grime-coated floor. He jumped up and growled whenever he heard the tell-tale _snick_ of yet another trap being set off.

"Ever hear of the term 'overkill?!'" Karato shouted as he ran from yet another giant stone rolling after him. It was then, much to his horror, that he noticed his notebook lying on the floor. Going into a slide, he slid on his knees and grabbed it before it was trampled over. Behind him, he felt air beat at his back as the boulder rolled right on by and crash into a wall. Letting out a sigh of relief, Karato felt that at long last he was safe. Unfortunately, that feeling vanished when he looked at the large rock, finding that it had rolled right into the exit. Just great, now was he supposed to get—

That's when he felt something on his shoulder. Frowning the youth turned his head and found a steady stream of sand piling up and falling off his shoulder. Looking up, his frown became more panicked as he realized there were more sand streams, along with large spikes. And the worst part was, the spikes were falling towards him.

"Ahhh!" He jumped away as one of the spikes landed right where he stood. "Did the person who designed this place watch _Illinois James_ a bit too much or something?!"

Karato dashed towards a doorway, skidding into a new room, making sure to check his footing to see if he'd stepped on another switch. Fortunately the floor turned out to be a solid layer of stone. Unfortunately, he heard a screeching sound, which made him look all over for the source. Eyes shooting side to side showed the walls were also mostly solid, with metal things on the wall. So, he looked up, only to see a spiked ceiling dropping down on him. Karato was not impressed by this, and his face showed it. This trap, unlike all the others he'd set off before it, was moving extremely slowly to the point of making it more of an annoyance than a danger. Casually, the archaeologist walked out of the room, coming to a stop in the next one. Taking in this new chamber, the young man found himself looking up to see moss and other growths had grown in the tracks of the trap.

As he examined the growths an idea struck him.

' _Don't you need moisture for moss?'_ Karato mused before he heard the sounds of something buckling. He looked down to see he'd stepped on another trap's trigger, which caused him to facepalm. Just how many traps were in this place? He could've sworn he hadn't activated any when he first entered this place. Turning around, Karato was just in time to get a face full of water, and nasty tepid water at that. His balance thrown off, the archeologist leaned back too far and was swept off his feet by a surprisingly strong current. He was washed through a couple of chambers before he had the chance to regain his bearings. Incidentally, the pressure set off more traps, but most of them didn't work quite so well underwater.

Except for the darts of course. Spotting their dark shapes in the water Karato twisted and turned his body to narrowly avoid a few darts from nailing him in the family jewels. That was the last thing he needed, to have his privates butchered in a ruin that hadn't had human contact in centuries.

Suddenly, his water-forced trek came to an end when he felt his back slam into a wall, the water continuing to push up against him for a few moments. The pressure of the water seemed to last an eternity before it let up, making him wonder if it was ever going to quit.

With a wet _flop!_ Karato slid to the ground in a heap, panting heavily.

He coughed for a good couple minutes until he had seemingly brought up all the water in his system. His lungs and throat burned a little as he panted.

Slowly, Karato shakily stood up and reached into his pack to pull out a wet sopping mess that had been his field journal. His recorder was found in his pants pocket in pieces, likely the impact against that stone wall via water had been the cause of death, if the water hadn't already ruined it. The camera was cracked but it turned on for a few seconds. If the memory card was okay he'd have something he could salvage from the trip into his own booby-trapped adventure.

Karato took a few experimental steps forward but stopped short when something whizzed past his face: A blade. To no surprise to him at all, he had just stepped on yet another trap's switch.

Karato sighed. He looked at the blades and saw they were at a certain height. Karato wrinkled his nose at the conclusion he'd reached: he would have to crawl on the dirty, sandy floor in his sopping wet state to avoid becoming julienned human.

"The things I'll do for a grade," he mumbled as he dropped on all fours and began to belly crawl past this latest obstacle. Because of this, he made a startling discovery: a section of the floor had letters engraved into it.

"Letters?" Karato said confused. He searched around and found a bit of rubble which he rolled across the next flooring to find nothing was activated.

' _Could I really be that lucky?'_ he thought as he carefully rose to his feet. Extending a leg out, Karato took a step—and nearly went through the floor. 'Nope!' Karato immediately lunged backwards, landing on his backside to avoid plunging through the floor. Taking a moment to let his heart rate slow down, he then began studying the markings to make sense of them. It took a few minutes as he stood there analyzing them, but eventually he realized that they weren't letters but were, in fact, symbols of the language of the ancient Suu Shin Chu Cult. After remembering a certain film, he knew what he probably had to do to pass through alive.

' _I hope I don't find an old knight or Nazis at the end of all this,'_ he thought.

Taking a deep breath, Karato placed a foot on a symbol that would be the word "Four" in his language. Finding that he wasn't plunging through the floor, he quickly brought his other foot to stand next to his other. Okay, now for the next one. Glancing around, the young man soon found the next word, "Star." With a hop, he went for the marking, only to accidentally step on the symbol for "Pearl" and nearly lost his life. Most of the floor collapsed in on itself, taking Karato with it, causing him to let out a surprised cry. Shooting a hand out, Karato desperately grabbed for a handhold and—somehow—found one before he fell completely through the floor. Looking to see what he snagged, he found he had managed to grab onto a stable floor tile, much to his relief. Hanging there for a few moments Karato then tried to climb back up, hauling his tiring body out of his self-made pit. The moment he was topside, he sat down on the "safe" flooring and panted loudly. Because he'd been so preoccupied with not dying, Karato had no idea he had grabbed onto the stone upon which the word "ball" was etched.

The next room was a cavern with, seemingly, no way across. Karato began to search for evidence of a rope bridge or something, failing to do so. There had to be someway across this; no way that it all ended here. Twisting this way and that as he craned his head to look at the walls stretching out from either side of him, he lost track of his feet and ended up tripping and fell forward.

"Ahhhh—!" he shrieked...no, yelled. A manly yell just so you know. Completely not like a—"Ouch!" Pain throbbed in his face. That had hurt more than just his face—his dignity as well. Slowly Karato peeled himself off the hard surface he'd landed on and just sat for a moment trying to collect himself after his most recent near-death experience. He was rubbing his face when he realized he was on a cleverly painted rock bridge that was nearly invisible to the naked eye. Deciding to make no more comments about the originality of the trick, Karato got onto his hands and knees before he crawled across very carefully: his near spill into oblivion extremely fresh in his memory.

Once on the other side, he stretched, ridding his body of the kinks and tightness that formed from the uncomfortable posture of his crawling. Karato looked around the platform he was on, checking for any further traps. Finding none, he decided to proceed through the rather crumbled doorway before him. Barely visible on the lentil was the symbol of Suu Shin Chu. Upon entering, Karato took in the details of the newest chamber. The colors, while faded were richer than anywhere else in the doomed temple, and there was evidence of having one had precious stones embedding in a few paintings on the walls here and there and some borders of what might have been tarnished silver. Time had won, though, and it was now faded. In the center rested a round orange object shining in the sunlight that streamed through a crack in the roof.

Was...was that? No, it couldn't be, could it? No, after all he'd been through, it had to be. The Dragon Pearl! It was real! Karato checked the ground and saw it was solid stone. No more triggers for him! Karato could just _see_ the look on his classmates faces whenever he showed them a _real_ Dragon Pearl.

' _We're sorry we called you crazy!'_

' _This changes everything we know about the Lost Age!'_

' _You're the greatest archaeology student ever!'_

Oh yeah.

Karato's daydreaming was interrupted when he tripped on an uneven part of the floor and snapped a rope: a trip wire. Damn it, how had he missed that?

That's when he heard another sound, one that made him look up.

"Oh shit!" Karato tried to dodge but the cage slammed down around him just a foot from the Dragon Pearl. It was a crosswork of wooden bars, all tied together by rope at random intersections. Grabbing the lowest bar he could, he tried to lift the cage up to no avail. Damn it, no! He couldn't be trapped in this century's old cage!

Sounds! "Scuttle! Scuttle!" not unlike the sounds of bugs on hard floors. Karato looked around and saw the shadows were _moving_. Shapes shifted and flickered before they peeled out of the shadows with spears. Men and women in tattered garments from a long gone era surrounded him. They poked their spears between the bars; Karato squirmed out of the way the best he could.

"Kai'-idth bulb?"*1

"Vi-Kwitaun! Stislak! Nenatqom'i Khau!"*2

"Nenatqom'i Kahu! Ra tu tvai Nenatqom'i Khau! Nenatqom'i Khau wu ma'toi!"*3

"Nenatqom'i Khau!"

' _Nenatqom'i Khau? But that's one of the names for the Monkey King!'_ Karato thought.

" _Hey_! I'm not the Monkey King!" he protested. "I'm just a guy!"

"Nenatqom'i Khau tevalik! Nenatqom'i Khau la! Nenatqom'i Khau ti! Nenatqom'i Khau nem-tor Suu Shin Chu!"*4

"Tu nem-tor ri Suu Shin Chu, Nenatqom'i Khau! Suu Shin Chu t'etwel!"*5

"Suu Shin Chu t'etwel!"*6

"Suu Shin Chu t'etwel!"

"Suu Shin Chu t'etwel!"

...

"What exactly do you hope to find out here, Bloom? The legends don't even speak of any settlements here for hundreds of miles!"

"Wu, if everything was where stories _said_ they'd be, then our job would be too easy."

"Still what would even _be_ out here?" Dr. Wu Kong stared at his bluenette friend as she leaned over a table, deciphering an old book of legends.

The woman didn't even look up from the book as she replied, "According to this story, there was a 'portal' or 'mouth' of Hell that spat out a demon so powerful, not even the fabled Monkey King could defeat it without aid from his son." A pause. "Or it might have been "the Sun" depending on how you translate this glyph right here," Bloom said, pointing to the passage in the book.

"You actually want to _find_ a hellmouth?" Wu asked incredulously. "Are you insane, woman?"

Bloom finally looked up at her friend, giving him a deadpanned look. "Wu, you know there's no such thing as monsters or magic or even hellmouths. What this could be, however, is someplace or something the people of the Lost Era objected to and I need to find out what that was."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Wu said as he turned away and looked at the site. Bloom shook off her small friend's concerns; after all, she was having a good year.

First there was the big find at the West City site, and now she was on the cusp of finding out if there really was a "portal to Hell" at this site. Archeologists of the world, eat your hearts out.

Bloom heard a yell, tearing her away from her table and looking out towards the source. She ran out to join the dig team, adding evidence to the fact that she didn't exercise enough. By the time she reached the team, she was sweaty, icky, and completely out of breath. This is what she got for not using a treadmill more.

"What's going on? What do we got?" she demanded once she came to a stop, huffing and puffing as she leaned forward, bracing herself up with her hands on her knees.

One of the workers looked to her, shaking his head in disgust. "Someone thought they felt the ground shake. It's nothing."

Bloom stared at the man. "You're joking. You've got to be joking right?" When the guy shrugged, the woman had to repress the urge to strangle someone. All that running for a false alarm. She needed to work out her frustration.

Grabbing a nearby pickaxe, she hefted it over a shoulder and trudged over to a wall. Something was going to be broken today and that wall was as good as anything.

...

It stirred in the darkness. It had been a long, arduous wait, but the time was at hand. Amidst the permanently dust-encrusted, cracked screens, rust eaten pods, mangled bits of other machine bits, and evidence even centuries later of scorch marks marring the cavern, it had waited. Yet, amongst this carnage and solitude, there was something calling to him. Something activated it, some sort of stimulus that was close by. This required further investigation.

...

"Out of the way! Out of the way!" Bloom shouted, jackhammer in hand. In response, her team scrambled about, heavier equipment moving forth towards a pile of innocuous-looking rocks. X-rays had shown they were nothing but rocks, but to a trained mind like Bloom, they screamed "Break us! We're hiding something!" Why argue with such a plea?

"Dr. Briefs, are you sure you can handle that jackhammer?" a crewmember asked cautiously.

"I'll be fine." Bloom waved off the worker's concerns and turned on the machine, feeling the hum of the tool through her arms.

"Thududdudud!"

Not to mention the familiar pounding sound like in the cartoons.

Unfortunately, one could be overzealous with a jackhammer. Who knew, right? Before the bluenette knew it, what had been a pile of rubble became a dank, dark hole, one that she was falling face first into.

"AHH!" she screamed just before a pair of arms wrapped around her, stopping her fall. The same couldn't be said of the jackhammer as he disappeared into the abyss before her.

"You alright?" the worker asked, pulling her away from the hole.

"I'm fine! It just got away from me," Bloom said apologetically, stepping away to compose herself. Absently she dusted herself off.

...

Light poured into the cavern for the first time in over a millennium.

Whirring gears whined as it crawled into the daylight.

Gero was back.

Gero's systems finally booted up fully once in the presence of sunlight. His systems ran a scan on his surroundings. His lab had been destroyed. The pieces were...oddly corroded. However, the scorch marks left behind allowed his processors to fully comprehend whom had trashed his lab: ki users. There was a high probability it was _**saiyan**_ ki users. Further scans showed remains of his bio android before it could have ever been born.

'Curse you, Goku!' he thought clenching his mismatched fists. Gero's damaged sensors picked up on lifeforms above him.

'It is likely they are intruders,' Gero thought.

He flew up out of the hole, blasting it larger.

...

Suddenly the ground shook and Bloom heard something coming from the cavern below. A cracking sound led to split second decision, Bloom throwing herself on her team to protect them from falling rubble. Hissing from the bumps she was sure she'd have, Bloom barely looked back at the hole when something flew out of it. The next thing she knew, Bloom heard something landing in front of her and the team. She looked over her shoulder and gasped.

The mismatched pile was humanoid in shape; the left arm was rusted and bulky, clearly meant for a larger form while the right was shiny but too thin and short for the cobbled together torso. The legs were the same length, but one was clearly feminine in design while the the other was bulky and masculine, both as rusted as the left arm. The torso was a bunch of parts welded together in the vague shape of a human chest. Its face...its face was horrible to behold; three quarters was exposed machinery, the last quarter synthetic flesh and a gray crazed looking eye. The top of the head was part clear dome and part fake skin, with a plume of white hair barely clinging to the skin. The scrap-man lurched towards Bloom and her team with extremely jerky movements.

He seemed to be focusing on her, and she could swear the mechanical eye "flashed" for a few moments during his scan. The hodgepodge machine man smirked at her. The lopsided grin, terrible to see.

"Saiyan blood 0.000000006%. Potential Saiyan ancestor: Vegeta. Threat level: negligible." His voice was a garbled mix of computer detachment and human smugness, something that set the bluenette on edge. What the hell was it babbling about? Saiyans? Vegeta?

Before she could even think to blurt out the questions, the machine man blasted off into the sky, sending dust flying all over the place, forcing those left behind to shield their faces. Then it dawned on Bloom what he'd said.

"Saiyan? What do you mean threat level 'negligible,' you rusted bucket of bolts?"

"Bloom, what was that?" Wu had run out of the main tent. Bloom saw the tangled tent flap and put two and two together for what had... _detained_ her friend. Wouldn't be the first time Wu had lost to a tent flap whenever he was in a rush. The levity from that memory evaporated whenever the situation at hand came crashing back.

"I-I don't know, Wu." Bloom said. She had a bad feeling about that ma—no, _thing_. A _thing_ that had flown out of a hole _she_ had made.

' _What have I done?'_

 _..._

1*: What is that thing?

2*: Intruder! Monster! Monkey King!

3*: What do you mean Monkey King?! Monkey King dead!

4*: Monkey King here! Monkey King Liar! Monkey King take Four Star Ball!

5*: You take not Four Star Ball, Monkey King! Four Star Ball belongs to us!"

6*: Four Star Ball belongs to us!"

So, I was too lazy to make up my own language, I used/bastardized Vulcan.

"Nenatqom'i Khau" doesn't actually mean "Monkey King." It would have been too easy to HAVE words for that. -_-

The elements I used to make it are the words for "prime," "human," and, "rule."

 **For those who are interested, we are a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories such as this one. We're an open group, meaning that anyone can apply to join. Feel free to check out our forums, our Facebook page, and perhaps apply to join the group, via the link on our profile. It's a great opportunity for those who would like to better their own writing abilities and exchange skills of the trade with fellow authors, or to simply be more a part of a writing community.**

 **Hope you enjoyed and please leave a review.**


	2. Monkey Business

**This chapter is brought to you by Mysterious Prophetess and ShadowMajin**

 _Previously on Things Best Left Buried,_

 _Karato Son was exploring the ruins of a temple only to find out the hard way that they were a booby trapped nightmare. Captured by what appeared to be remnants of the Suu Shin Chu cult, things look pretty bleak for the young aspiring archaeologist._

 _Meanwhile, many miles away_ _,_ _Dr. Bloom Briefs pursued her own quest for knowledge only to unleash a long dormant evil upon the world. Dr. Gero was back._

Find out what will happen in Chapter 2 of TBLB.

Chapter 2: Monkey Business

The cage was different, but a cage by any other name was still a cage. Karato rubbed at a grime-coated arm as he sat on the floor of the woven-together branch and rope. It was suspended at least twenty feet in the air by a rope that he really, really didn't trust the integrity of. It felt like it had been forever since he'd been shoved in this new cage.

...

Sudden movement made Karato jerk to a side, the jabs of spears through the openings between wooden bars putting him on edge while the Suu Shin Chu cutlists chanted, "Suu Shin Chu t'ewel!" over and over. He just hoped that this wasn't some sort of pre-killing chant.

A man held up his hand and the mob settled, the chanting descending into a quiet murmur before silence took over. The man pointed his spear at the cage and made a few hand gestures that Karato barely made out before one of the nearby cultists opened the cage door. Before Karato could even think to escape, a spear tip was at his throat. He was seized roughly by two big, nearly identical brutes, who dragged him out of the cage and over the damp, lichen-covered cave floor that had been connected to the Suu Shin Chu chamber by a hidden entrance behind the altar. He was roughly flung into yet another cage and it was slammed shut before being hoisted in the air. With one final look of disgust, the cultists left him hanging in the air in this new room.

...

Karato shook his head and looked around the larger room he found himself in, again. It was a cave, the walls irregular because of this fact; there was a hole in the ceiling that let in some moonlight, so that was nice. He was being suspended by primitive pulley and lever tech, and the floor was covered in sand. The young man looked down at his shadow and smirked at how odd it looked. With his hair spiking up because of the grime coating it and it's natural wild tendencies, he looked like he was an anime character-well, his silhouette at least.

A _shuffle-shuffle_ sound made Karato jolt a little, shaking his cage. The cultists were back and this time there was a less ragged woman with them. She wore modern clothing, though they were in poor shape, and she seemed to be sane compared to his captors. The man who'd pointed his spear at his throat stood next to her looking vaguely in charge.

"Hello!" she said, "I'm Mari. This is Pin. He's the High Priest-Chief of the Keepers of Suu Shin Chu."

Karato blinked his eyes bewilderedly. _What the heck?_ "H-hi. How did you-" he sputtered out.

"End up here? the woman finished for him. "Met a guy, he turned out to be a Keeper in both senses of the word, so I married him and became the outside world interpreter for the Keepers." Mari gave him a reassuring smile. "I'll be interpreting."

"Nem-tor tu Nenatqom'i Khau?" Pin said.

"He asked if you're the Monkey King?" Mari said.

"No, I am not!" Karato exclaimed.

"Ish-veh nem-tor ri Nenatqom'i Khau," Mari interpreted to the High Priest-Chief...guy.

"Vi nem-tor tu, vi-kwitaun?" Pin said, gesturing at Karato with his spear.

"Who are you?" Mari repeated.

Karato swallowed before answering, "My name's Karato Son. I'm an archaeology student."

"Ish-veh wimish Karato Son. Ish-veh nem-tor orensu t'veshtsu-tal." Mari said.

"Po nem-tor tu sarlah?"

"He wants to know why you're here."

"I came looking for one of seven mystical artifacts and I believe this Suu Shin Chu is one of them. I wanted to share this discovery with the world, that's all. Because it's your cultural heritage, you'd get to keep Suu Shin Chu-I merely wanted to document it," Karato replied. Mari seemed to mull this over before she turned to Pin.

"Ish-veh nem-tor wuhkuh t'stekuh i'vish. Suu Shin Chu nem-to t'au. Ish-veh aitlu gluvaya nash-tal-tor-vi k'panu. Du potau Suu Shin Chu. Ish-veh nem-tor t'iyula. Ish-veh veling aitlu kisev Suu Shin Chu."

Pin glared and there were mutterings among the other Suu Shin Chu Keepers. Karato suddenly had a vision of being ritually sacrificed.

"Etwel gluvaya ri Suu Shin Chu! Suu Shin Chu t'ewel, ri vrekasht!"*7 Pin shouted. Karato didn't need Mari to translate that as a flat refusal, though that didn't seem to stop her from smiling whimsically and translating.

Then to make matters worse, the Priest Chief hefted his spear up, pointing its tip right at the young man. Full of fear, Karato curled up into as small of a ball as he could as Pin prepared to throw his spear. Already he was imagining that sharp blade sliding into his ribs, blood pouring out as pain seared into him. He was going to die here, wasn't he? He was actually going to-

That's when the young student heard it: _creeeeak-snap!_ The rope holding up his cage chose that moment to snap.

"Ahhh!" Karato screamed as he plummeted to the ground.

With a loud crash, the cage hit the ground. The wooden bars broke and splintered, causing the entire thing to fall apart on top of him. "Oof!" the wind was knocked out of him as the broken beams landed on his head, stunning him for a few moments. He could hear muffled yelling from Mari, but the one he could make out clearly belonged to Pin.

"Na'shte ish-veh!"*8 The student scrambled out of the pile of debris, surprisingly not crippled from the fall, and took off into the tunnels, slipping on the sandy, uneven, and at times grimy cave floors. He slipped on a particularly bad wet patch and damn near skinned his knee. That was much better considering he watched a spear sail past his face, clearing it by millimeters.

Karato landed on his butt with a wet _swack!_ He scrambled to get up again to keep running, but slipped again, falling on his face. Karato frantically crawled as fast as he could, his belly scraping against the floor. He had to keep going no matter what, finally scrambling up onto his feet to keep running for his life. Faintly he wondered if the memory card of his camera survived, for his grade.

 _I can just imagine Aunt Wheta's face if I failed a project,_ he thought.

 _You shiftless bum! Do you want to be a useless, no account like your siblings!_ A shiver crawled up and down his spine at the imagined voice, which unconsciously made him run faster through the curving tunnels. Spotting an alcove, he quickly ducked into it, doing his best to keep quiet. In a storm of stomping feet, the Suu Shin Chu Keepers thundered past. Karato leaned back towards the wall in relief-except there was no wall. With a choked gasp, he tumbled backwards into a tunnel opening he hadn't noticed before, landing roughly on the ground. He was getting very intimate with this grime-covered floor with the number of times he kept falling on it. After untangling himself from himself, Karato looked around the narrow tunnel as best he could. Unlike the other tunnels, this one didn't seem to have periodic torches. Though, there was a faint glow indicating the presence of phosphorescent rocks. There was something there, but there was no telling what it was and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out. Voices echoing behind him made Karato's decision for him.

 _I really hope there aren't booby traps down here,_ Karato thought. Those were the last things he ever wanted to see or feel or whatever again. The phosphorescence of the rocks gave off barely enough light to keep Karato from falling on his face. Though, they were amazing colors.

 _Except these are too bright to be phosphorescent, and I doubt there was any light here,_ he realized a moment later. He looked closer to see it wasn't actually the rocks glowing, but it was a type of moss growing on them that glowed, making its bioluminescent plant life responsible for his ability to see. It was obviously a few different varieties of this moss because there were at least five different colors. Neon green, electric blue, neon magenta, bright yellow, and neon orange. It grew more prevalent as Karato went deeper into the narrow tunnel. The tunnel stopped at an underground spring filled with bioluminescent algae, which made the water glow with blue lights in it. Coupled with the moss it was one of the most beautiful things Karato had even seen, and sadly his camera was broken.

Damn it. He could have shown it to a botany student and gotten kudos from them.

He sat down next to the spring and realized getting up from there would be hard.

 _That's what happens when you run for your life several times in one day,_ Karato figured. His missing pack, still resting at the temple entrance he hoped, also held any and all provisions he'd thought to pack.

Goody.

Katato laid down on the soft sand and decided there wasn't anything wrong with a short nap.

…

Gero stopped his ascent somewhere into the stratosphere, his damaged sensors scanning for threats from Saiyans or airplanes. With the amount of ki one of those vile aliens produced, even with his half-functioning equipment he should be able to pick up a reading on them. The scrap-android paused. His scan of the geological features below him did not in anyway match his map data.

Findings, inconclusive. Further input needed. Gero scanned for any satellite signals. After a moment, he managed to lock onto the signal of one that's interface identified it as "Geggle Earth."

 _A map satellite. Excellent,_ Gero thought. He closed his eyes as he assimilated the data the satellite was beaming down. Once he configured the data, he was confused. None of the map data he received even remotely matched the map data he held previously. Where settlements like West City should have been there was nothing and where nothing had been previously, there were enormous metropolises.

Conclusion: A significant time had passed since he had been forced into inactivity by Seventeen's treachery.

Secondary Conclusion: factoring continental drift and other environmental factors at least 1000 years have passed, ergo all Saiyans of any blood potency worth worrying about would be long since deceased.

Tertiary Conclusion: Goku is dead.

Gero began to chuckle. Goku was dead. Goku was dead! Goku was dead! Long, long dead! His foolish friends were dead! There would be no one in the way of completing Commander Red's dream! He would conquer this world in the name of the Red Ribbon Army and finally have his commander's wish fulfilled!

Gero threw his head back and laughed all the harder.

Nothing and no one would stop him!

Of course there was a snag in his plan.

He would need an army to aid in keeping order. Androids had proven...unreliable. Humans, however, were not only weak, but if given the right bait, they would do anything.

 _Yes, I'll genetically alter them to be stronger than the average man. That way they're effective as my minions,_ _but incapable of overthrowing me_ _. After_ _the biological experiment_ _, this will be child's play,_ Gero thought.

…

Karato woke up from his nap by the glowing pool and stretched. He felt icky and nasty, but until he got to civilization, he'd have to grin and bear it. He could hear the taunts from his big sister now,

 _Ah, is poor wittle Kawato feeling ick-ick? Poor wittle pwincess!_ He shook his head. Damn. He hadn't seen Param in months and she still could affect him! What was it with the women he knew leaving such impression on him? Karato stood up and stretched. His biggest concern was getting out of these tunnels without running into the Suu Shin Chu Keepers who still seemed partly convinced he was the Monkey King.

 _Good thing they're isolated from the real world,_ Karato thought. Why?

Well, his ancestor might have been the inspiration for that myth.

Another name for the Monkey King was Sun Wukong. A third name was Son Goku. A name which, funnily enough, belonged to his ancestor whose family stories spoke of in similar terms.

If those crazy Suu Shin Chu Keepers found that out, well... the memory of nearly getting a spear to the face was fresh in Karato's memory.

 _I need to move._ He carefully made his way through the mossy room and found two splits in the tunnel. One left, one right. The one on the right had the glowing moss on it so he chose that one because he could see where he was going. As he made his way down the winding tunnel he realized that the moss was grown in designs on this one. The symbols were similar to those of the ancient Suu Shin Chu Keepers, but different enough that to him the translations might as well have been Greek to him. Damn. He should have learned Greek!

"Sai-ya-jin? Ka-kar-rotto? Chi-kyuu-sei? Ny-o-bo? Kin-to-un?"

Karato reflexively reached for his field journal only to remember it was now nothing more than a soggy mess somewhere in that temple of doom. The camera was also mostly a done for thing, but it couldn't hurt to try. Karato held it up and turned it on-much to his delight-and managed to snap a picture of the writing before it shut off. He stashed it back in his pocket and continued his journey down the tunnel, occasionally glancing at the moss murals and the odd writings written with moss.

He skidded to a halt whenever he was suddenly in a large chamber devoid of the moss. There was a natural opening in the ceiling that flooded the chamber with moonlight, providing him all the light the youth needed. In the center of the room was an altar surrounded by lit candles and resting on top of it was a red bo staff. Carved into the base were those same symbols that were on the walls in moss. Only this time it was a name:

Son Goku.

 _No. Way._ He'd only ever heard STORIES about these people. The Cult of the Monkey King was real! As much as he itched to get closer to what had to be the legendary Power Pole of the Monkey King, the collection of bruises and cuts he'd accumulated from his "fun" trip through the temple of the Suu Shin Chu had him more than a little hesitant to approach this particular altar along with the Suu Shin Chu Keepers' confusion as to his identity.

 _If they mistake me for the Monkey King I could either be sacrificed so I could "regain my proper form" or kept here forever! No thanks!_ Karato scanned the tunnels leading out and chose the one with the most moonlight in it, hoping it would lead outside.

Karato stopped dead. He closed his eyes, ears straining for whatever it was he thought he heard.

"...ochite yuku yo panikku no sono he."

Karato stiffened at the sound. Slowly he turned his head towards the chamber he just vacated. Though he wasn't sure, he could've sworn he saw shadows flittering about. That had to be those Keeper cultists guys, it just had to be.

The echoes of the song made Karato jump with fear as they grew louder, making him run faster across the uneven surface, tripping and nearly falling flat on his face once again. This wasted energy and he was dragging his sore, exhausted body along a few moments later.

"Need..to get...in...better shape. Kaidon...would be...laughing...his ass off... at me," Karato moaned. Both of his older siblings would be laughing at him in fact. The Twins liked doing that, the jerks.

 _Stupid martial arts champions with their stupid stamina and skills,_ Karato mentally grumbled as he kept trudging down the tunnel. That's when he felt it: a breeze. What more is it didn't taste stale like the air in the tunnels did. That could mean only one thing. Karato felt a second wind and tore off down the tunnel following the scent of fresh air and tripped over his feet just before the exit. He crawled out into the moonlight.

"Woohoo!" he cheered, weakly, as he stood and looked up at the stars. Oh how beautiful they were! Drinking them, the young man couldn't help wondering how he could have ever doubted he'd see them again.

Karato carefully looked around and saw the Suu Shin Chu temple looming several hundred feet over him.

 _I'll get my car later,_ he thought as he woozily walked into the woods, following the beaten path that had originally led him here.

Unfortunately, Karato couldn't take another step. He ended up leaning against a nearby tree, panting. His adrenaline rushes were spent, and his legs and arms felt like rubber. A sound in the forest that sounded like a howl jolted Karato into alert-mode, but he knew he couldn't run.

 _Ok, if you're ever in a dangerous spot whenever you're out in the wild but you're tired, sleep up in a tree._ Karato was seven and his elder sister Param was fourteen, her bushy black hair tied back, as per normal, out of her face. Her twin brother Kaidon, her male double, was already up a tree to demonstrate.

 _Just use your belt, and it'll hold you in place,_ Kaidon said.

Karato blinked the memory away and with all his effort hauled himself into the tree and up to a spot that would support his weight. It was almost all he could do to remove his belt and wrap it around the trunk without falling out of the tree. Once secured, he leaned back and sleep overtook the exhausted aspiring archaeologist.

Whenever he awoke, it was light out. Time to get a move on, though whenever he undid his belt, he lost his balance and-

"Ahh!" landed on his face. Karato stood up shakily holding his nose. What a day he'd been having! With his hand still rubbing his nose, Karato shakily walked back to the path and continued to follow it.

 _Four Hours Later_

Karato finally emerged from the thick forest to see the small town he'd stopped at before his trip to the temple. He was almost home free! He walked into the town only to find people running about in a panic, some had a few things under their arms as they tried to cram into a bus while others seemed to be trying to load everything they had into their vehicles.

Karato stopped in front of an appliance store and stared at it in horror.

On the screen, footage of what had started off as a helicopter eye view of Kunziteton that quickly turned nightmarish. A strange mismatched monster that filled Karato's stomach with dread flew into view for a moment before flashing the camera a macabre grim and pointing his finger at the town below. A ball of light gathered there before it transformed into a beam that slammed into the city below, the camera rapidly changed to follow before it exploded and the camera feed was lost for a few moments. It returned, with some digitization to the picture but what remained was a smoking crater. The man-shaped monster was laughing hard, and gripping what might have been considered its stomach with its mismatched hands.

"I am called Dr. Gero. If you do not comply with my wishes and surrender in the name of the Red Ribbon Army, I will do this to all of your cities. You have no chance against me, so don't even try. For now, this territory is mine. I give you a few months to get everything in order to make the transition to the glorious reign of the Red Ribbon Army go more smoothly," the monster announced.

"That was two days ago. The leaders of Granite had signed over the territory that had been Kunziteton and its surrounding metro area to this Dr. Gero. Can anything or anyone stop this madman?" the news anchor said.

 _But that's here!_ Karato thought before he looked at the date and realized this had all happened while he was running for his life from the Suu Shin Chu's.

 _How am I going to get home?_ Karato wondered as he really took in the chaos around him. It suddenly made his worries about how to salvage the data for his field work almost seem...petty.

Karato shook his head. He had to get out of this before he could even think to get back to his school work; problem is, how would he do that?

...

Once again, Vulcan is used/bastardized for the language of the Suu Shin Chu cult

*1Are you the Monkey King?

*2 He is not the Monkey King.

*3 Who are you, intruder?

*4 He is called Karato Son. He is a student of archaeology.

*5 Why did you come?

*6 He is seeking one of seven artifacts. The Suu Shin Chu is part of them. He wants to share this discovery with the world. You will get to keep Suu Shin Chu. It is part of your culture. He merely wants to document Suu Shin Chu.

*7 We will not share Suu Shin Chu! Suu Shin Chu belongs to us, not outsiders!

*8 Get him!

 **For those who are interested, we are a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories such as this one. We're an open group, meaning that anyone can apply to join. Feel free to check out our forums, our Facebook page, and perhaps apply to join the group, via the link on our profile. It's a great opportunity for those who would like to better their own writing abilities and exchange skills of the trade with fellow authors, or to simply be more a part of a writing community.**

 **Hope you enjoyed and please leave a review.**


	3. Journey to the West

**This chapter is brought to you by Mysterious Prophetess and ShadowMajin**

 _Previously on Things Best Left Buried,_

 _Karato managed to escape with his life from the dreaded Suu Shin Chuu Keepers and narrowly avoided running into yet another cult during his flight in the twisting caverns of the underground. Upon emerging into daylight and returning to civilization, Karato soon discovered the world was in peril. Dr. Gero had destroyed a city and claimed the territory around it as his own. A territory Karato just so happened to be in. Can he get away? Find out in Chapter 3 of TBLB!_

Chapter 3: Journey to the West

Karato walked slowly up the path to the temple, still reeling from what he had seen on the television. Monsters like that couldn't possibly be real, they just couldn't be! And yet it had been verified by multiple newscasts. This robot man, Dr. Gero, was indeed there to stay. Just the thought of it made bile churn in his stomach, nearly making him wretch. Taking in a deep breath, Karato couldn't help but sniff the air, causing him to freeze.

 _Do I smell gas?_

As he drew closer he smelt it grow stronger until he was within sight of the Suu Shin Chuu temple.

"No! No! No!" Karato bolted forwards until he began to stumble and fell to his knees. In front of him lay a pile of wreckage: glass, metal, oil, and gasoline soaking into the ground. Bits of cloth and foam blew past him like tumbleweeds. The burned out husk of his car looked positively mournful. The "Nyota Nimbus" logo was the only thing intact. Another set of ashes nearby let Karato know that the Keepers had burned his other belongings too.

"My brother is going to kill me!" Karato exclaimed mournfully. The Nyota Nimbus had been Kaidon's baby; the only car the three siblings possessed and now it had been murdered! Just like Karato would be once Kaidon saw what had become of "his precious." Watching the smouldering wreckage, Karato soon stood up and numbly made his way back to the town. When he reached it, he saw people were still trying to cram onto buses with their belongings, and resigned himself to the fate of likely being shoved into a bus full of bad BO. Gross. Then again, Karato was still covered in the dirt and grime from his own misadventure so he was willing to bet he didn't smell all that nice either.

Standing in line seemed to take forever. Slowly the people in front of Karato trudged towards the buses, hauling their suitcases with them desperately. In comparison, the youth only had the clothes on his back and the dirty stench he had worked up. Funnily enough, no one seemed too offended by his stench.

However, things changed when the buses departed with Karato still in a line to try to cram onto them.

"Sorry, folks! Try again tomorrow!" a man in an official looking uniform said.

A loud outcry rang out from the crowd, nearly deafening the young man. "I'm not staying here! I'm going on foot!" a woman yelled. There was a chorus of "Yeahs!" that followed the declaration. Karato found himself nodding as well. He had to get home, first and foremost, though he definitely needed a map to know how far he needed to run on foot to get out of the territory.

"Hey, sir!" Karato said, tapping a man on the shoulder.

"What?"

"Can I borrow your smartphone for a second?" Karato asked. "I need to see if I can find a map of what was signed over."

The man handed his EPhone to Karato who quickly pulled up a web browser and began to search "Gero territory maps" Upon seeing the map that appeared on the screen, Karato's eyes widened with surprise. They were very close to the border!

"We can walk out!" he said, handing it back to the man. The man looked at it and he "whooped" and began to take off at a dead sprint out of town.

That was when Karato saw it: a plume of smoke in the distance. The same direction the overladen buses and cars had been headed. Karato felt something clench his stomach as he saw a few cars peeling back into town.

Out of one of the cars, a woman fell out of trembling.

"Th-They're dead! They came from the sky and they're dead!" she screamed. Karato and the rest of the crowd were confused by this announcement until He looked up into the sky.

"What the-!" was the general consensus of the crowd. They were flying metallic…. _things_. They looked like cylinders with pincer arms. Pincer arms that were shooting lasers down at the ground below, causing more plumes of smoke to billow up into the air. The TVs and nearby radios gave a shrill _screech!_ sound before the voice of Gero was heard.

"I've received word that some of you foolish humans are attempting to flee my magnanimous reign. No one may leave my territory. No one. You are all now citizens of the rule of the glorious Red Ribbon Army! Those that flee will be hunted down, as I'm sure many of you have already found out." The threat alone had been unnerving; the terrible, insane laughter that followed was more so.

The transmission cut out. The street fell into silence. It was interrupted by the broken sobbing of the same woman who had managed to return to town. Karato narrowed his eyes as he looked back up at the sky. The flight patterns were hard to discern but he noticed that the robots were avoiding one area in particular: the Suu Shin Chuu temple. Karato shuddered at what he'd concluded. He had to go back _**there**_.

Either go back _there_ or stay to live under the regime of a mad man. Go back and nearly die or stay and be enslaved. It was a hard decision, but either way presented a potential of death. Karato would rather have a quick one than a prolonged one, so, into the tunnels under the Temple of Doom.

Karato's stomach growled loudly. First, food.

Apparently someone had heard his rumbly tummy as a voice spoke to him. "Head over to the fire department. They've already got a pot of chili going and have been since this whole mess started," an old man said, clapping Karato on the shoulder. The old man quickly wiped his hand off on his pants.

"Which way?" Karato asked. The old man pointed and Karato followed the crowd of people.

...

There were people who had appointed themselves the "neighborhood watch" and were patrolling to keep people from trying to flee on foot. That was rather upsetting and more trouble than it should have been. Karato ducked through the shadows, glad of his already dark-colored t-shirt and pants. He nearly tripped over his shoelaces at one point but he finally slipped out of the town limits and let out a sigh of relief. Finally he was out; now he just needed to put distance between the town and him and there was no way he could be forced back. Why, it would have to take one of those flying robots…

Oh crap, there were flying robots out here. Jerking his head up, he tried to spot any of those mechanical nightmares against the starry sky, faintly seeing them hovering in the air not too far away.

From then on Karato made sure to dart into the trees whenever the robots weren't overhead. They seemed to rely on visual information, but Karato wasn't going to take the chance that they were also heat seeking. He panted as he looked up to see nothing but the thick canopy of leaves. Karato took off down the path, and knew he was in for a long trek. The trees looked a bit more menacing than they had earlier, almost as if their forms took on a sinister look to them. Karato couldn't help but jump at every sound, constantly worrying it was a robot's laser. It took forever for him to begin to relax, much less stop jumping at shadows. Before he knew it, an hour had gone by and he was staring at a familiar star constellation; one that was slowly moving towards the east.

Great. Approximately three more hours to go to get through the dense forest. Karato shook his head and continued to march on.

...

Karato stopped for a short break just within the forest boundaries, mostly so he could have cover before he made his next move. It was luck that he found some apples growing nearby. It was surprising to find, but then he hadn't seen them the last time, he was sure, because of his panic. Regardless, it made for a quick snack for his empty stomach, and he was eternally grateful for the respite. After he'd finished the third apple he walked into the the caverns prepared for anything.

Or so he thought.

Karato noticed more of the bioluminescent moss was on these walls too, but it was almost dead. He pulled out something he'd swiped from town earlier, a notebook, and began to take notes. He'd already replicated the as many of the notes from his now long destroyed field journal as he could. He had also copied the symbols down, in hopes of finding a lexicon for the language at a later date whenever the world wasn't under robotic-overlord threat. This notebook was then slipped into a plastic bag in hopes of keeping it safe from water damage.

He followed the tunnel back to the cavern of the altar of the Monkey King, as he had mentally labeled it, and stopped dead. On one side were the Suu Shin Chu Keepers, armed with spears and slings. On the other were a group of people in equally archaic, but not quite as ragged, clothing, armed with staves and bows. Karato could hear the interpreter Mari from before relaying messages to another person, a man, who was translating it to the other people but it was language to language so Karato had no idea what was being said.

"lle atara nae y' ai nyano ar' lle atar fire en' iant yave!" *1

"Vu ko-mekh nam-tor ni thelik, lu ish-veh shitau pla'krusair ne'pa ha-kel, ish-veh shitau pla'krusair ne'pa ha-kel!" *2

"lle atara naa ikotane amada ve' re wanwa a' bangkok utu- ten' i' belongien y' narda Ohtar!" *3

"Vu ko-mekh nam-tor ni neik-ha'gel, ish-veh nantu natuhn t'zhar-kur tono'pak samasu fai'el ish-veh tar-tor "thakau!" *4

"lle atara naa ikotane fat tanya iire re lanne y' malina ure waima hini chebin callien he` alta dulin!"*5

"Vu ko-mekh nam-tor ni watosh, ish-veh pak-tor vaksur kuhlaya tehnat Medusa!" *6

Karato face-palmed. The world was going to hell and these two cults seemed to be having a somewhat childish name calling fight. He sat and watched the cults hurling insults, until Pin gestured to Mari who nodded.

"Etwel dungi ri da-tor abru-Suu Shin Chu. Suu Shin Chu t'etwel!"*7

The other interpreter listened to the leader of his cult and he said, "Ta naa il- lle maranwe cael- i' suu shin chu tuulo' ta tura vee' tengwa ed' i' Seldarine, i' Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin, vee' lye ve' wise-aya il- naa lye maranwe vor- var- i' nyo-bo!" *8

"Du plokh tar-tor t'du limuk!"*9

"En' rant lye verya lle, ya fira en' iant yave!" *10

Before another round could start Mari and Pin suddenly hesitated before their eyes zeroed in on Karato. It was kinda creepy to watch.

"There's the "Monkey King" now," Mari said, this time in a language Karato could understand. The other interpreter turned along with most of his cult and they cheered.

"I'm not the Monkey King!" Karato protested.

"Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin!"*11

" Ilya Aaye i'Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin!" *12

Before anything else could happen there was a metallic _screech_ that echoed down the tunnel behind Karato followed by loud swearing.

"You stupid fucker! You gave us away you asshole!"

"Shut up, you prick!"

"Make me, bitch!"

The cults exchanged looks before aiming their weapons for the opening while Karato darted over to the side of the room that was least likely to murder him: the Monkey King Cultists. He kept off to the side as the source of the clangs and curses came ambling into view. It was four scrap-like robots covered in spinning gears and blades floating jerkily in the air, being controlled by four goons holding remote controls. Karato noticed the goons had the insignia of the Red Ribbon Army on their shirts barely. The patches peeled off in places or hung, quite literally, by a thread.

It was as if the goons were waiting for a signal. The leader of the Monkey King Cult grabbed the legendary artifact off its pedestal and held it aloft shouting,

" _Chala head chala_!"

As one, the Suu Shin Chuu Keepers grabbed rocks and began to pelt the robots as the goons used their remotes to make the robots' spinning blades get closer to the primitively armed cultists. In the madness, somehow the cultists managed to dent one badly.

"Shit, overdrive mode, now!" the goon hit a button on the remote, causing his fellow goons to do likewise.

The robots stopped in midair and began to vibrate violently. " _Screech_ ,", " _clunk_ " and, " _gargle_!" were the best way to describe the harsh grating sounds the robots were emitting as they shook and shuddered. Side panels slowly slid upwards to reveal hodgepodge jointed metallic limbs that had visible rust spots and some loose-looking wires that ended with spindly, multi-jointed, sharp "fingers." The bottom panels split open and pairs of spindly legs extended to simple curves for feet. The "knees" of those legs had sharp-jagged metal for "knee caps." The three saws that had been running through the main torso remained and gave the robots extra slicing and dicing area per-square inch. The one thing the now bipedal rust bots were lacking was a head. However, the glowing red sensors above the topmost saw more than made up for it.

One of the newly transformed machines used one of its arms to grab a Suu Shin Chuu Keeper. It promptly flung them into the rest of the Keepers with such force that the whole group went down. Hard. Karato gulped whenever one of the robots seemed to zero in on **him**.

 _What did I ever do!_ he thought. It wasn't as if _he_ 'd been the one to throw anything at the robots. He'd never purposefully harmed technology in his life.

 _Aside from that one time I blew up a toaster, but that was Kaidon's idea!_

"Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin! Sana sina saesa"*13

Karato looked over to see something red coming for his face. Years of being Kaidon and Param's little brother came in handy whenever he caught it: the red bo staff that could have very possibly been the Legendary Power Pole of the Monkey King himself. Whose name may or may not have been Goku Son. It felt... _good_ in his hands.

Karato was jolted from his thoughts by a metallic fist headed for his face. Once again, his elder twin siblings' torments proved valuable life experiences as he managed to barely block the blow with the bo staff. He was only just keeping his footing as the bot went after him. He tripped and managed to roll out of the way. The staff was just so darn _**short**_!

"Damn it! If only this thing could extend or something!" Karato shouted as he swung it at the bot. It was a wild swing he thought would miss, but he didn't have much choice. To his shock, the pole grew longer and not only swept the bot into a wall, but skewered a second junk bot right through its CPU!

"Uh, retract now!" Karato said as he scrambled away from the remaining two bots who the goons had controlled into getting closer to Karato. He backed away from a few blade swipes until,

"Ahh!" he tripped on a rock that a Suu Shin Chuu Keeper had thrown. Curse them, anyhow!

It turned out to be a bit of good luck, because the blade cleared his face by mere millimeters. A few hair strands had been sliced short. Then he heard a satisfying shredding sound. The bot that had missed him had hit its cohort. He rolled away as they both exploded; shaking the cavern a little and making dust rain down on everyone present. Karato stood smirking until the second bot, the one he'd merely smashed into a cavern wall, was back up and running. This time he aimed the amazing red pole at the bot's chest and deliberately said, "Extend!"

The enchanted wood went through the corroded metal like it was tissue paper. Karato twirled the staff as it shrunk and aimed it at the goons who now held useless remote controls.

The wild haired Archaeology student held up his free hand and beckoned them closer. The goons exchanged a look before they dropped their remotes and ran for it.

 _Ha! Good thing that looked impressive_ Karato thought. That was about the most complex move he could do with a bo staff.

"Ilya Aaye i'Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin!"*12 the Monkey King Cultists said. The Suu Shin Chuu Keepers had gotten up, and luckily no one had been impaled upon the spears of their fellow cultists. Pin and Mari were speaking to each other and gesturing wildly. Karato watched as Pin seemed to give in to what Mari wanted. He approached Karato and held out a pouch that contained a round object in it the size of an orange.

"Etwel dungi dat-tor Suu Shin Chu t'vu," he said.

"We turn over the Suu Shin Chuu to you," Mari said. Karato didn't hold his hand out for it

"I can't take this," he replied.

"If you don't, they will kill you this time. Right here, right now," Mari said, grabbing Karato's hand and making him take the pouch, "And don't even think of trying to give the _**Others**_ the Power Pole back. It would be an even bigger insult to them than refusing the Suu Shin Chuu would be to us." Karato gulped as he tied the pouch to his belt.

The translator for the Monkey King Cultists walked over with a holder for the staff.

"What is your name, child?" he inquired. Karato took the holder, tied it to his back and carefully fit the staff inside.

"Karato Son." The translator smiled and clapped him on the back, painfully.

"It is an honor. Follow that fork, and you will be outside the mountains," he said.

Karato smiled. "Thank you!" he exclaimed, "I can't repay you-."

"Do not think of it, just go now with our blessing," the translator spoke. Karato nodded and nodded to Mari before he followed the tunnel indicated by the Monkey King Cultist.

The Translator turned back to his Suu Shin Chuu Keeper counterpart. "Not bad for someone who worshipped a round ball all these years," he said to Mari.

"It's not simply a ball!"

...

Gero was not pleased whenever his human recruits returned empty handed.

"I expected you to bring me foolish humans to make examples of, instead it was you-you-you- _thunk!_ \- who was made the example," Gero said. Even having to smack his vocal processor out of repeating hadn't lessened the fear the goons had.

"I-It wasn't our fault!" one of them protested.

"There was a wild haired kid with a red staff that could grow on command there. He took out out the robots!" another added.

"It was like it wasn't even a wooden staff!"

"And the robots were rusting in midair- _ah_!" The other goons stared in horror at the burning spot that had been the one who had dared voice that the robots had been constructed of _subpar_ building materials.

No one bad mouthed Gero's building techniques and lived.

Even if he _had_ been right. Then, something from the goons' reports made Gero pause.

"Wild haired boy?" Gero inquired.

"Y-yeah! K-k-kid with wild black hair and black eyes!" a remaining goon said as he cowered. Gero looked off to the side. This could prove...troublesome.

 _After all, they say those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it._

 _..._

TBC….

For the cult of the Monkey King a language called "Tel Quessir" was utilized/bastardized. Vulcan, as usual, was used/abused for the Suu Shin Chu Keepers. This will be the last chapter to feature any special languages, most likely.

Tel Quessir Dictionary:

1 lle atara nae y' ai nyano ar' lle atar fire en' iant yave!

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

3lle atara naa ikotane amada ve' re wanwa a' bangkok utu- ten' i' belongien y' narda Ohtar.

Your mother is so stupid she went to Bangkok to get a Tie Fighter!

5 lle atara naa ikotane fat tanya iire re lanne y' malina ure waima hini chebin callien he` alta dulin!

Your mother is so fat that when she wore a yellow moomoo kids kept calling her Big Bird!

8 Ta naa il- lle maranwe cael- i' suu shin chu tuulo' ta tura vee' tengwa ed' i' Seldarine, i' Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin, vee' lye ve' wise-aya il- naa lye maranwe vor- var- i' nyo-bo!

It is not your right to keep the Suu Shin Chu from it's rightful owner, the Monkey King, anymore than it is our right to keep the Nyo-bo!

10 En' rant lye verya lle, ya fira en' iant yave!

Of course we dare, you who smell of elderberries!

11 Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin!

Monkey King!

12 Ilya Aaye i'Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin!

All Hail the Monkey King.

13 Aina' Lost Arvandor Hin! Sana sina saesa!

Monkey King! Take this please!

Please note: Once again, there weren't actually words for "Monkey King." Instead, playing around with what Goku's name meant was how this title came to be.

Vulcan dictionary:

2Vu ko-mekh nam-tor ni thelik, lu ish-veh shitau pla'krusair ne'pa ha-kel, ish-veh shitau pla'krusair ne'pa ha-kel!

Your mother is so fat that when she sits around the house, she sits around the house.

4 Vu ko-mekh nam-tor ni neik-ha'gel, ish-veh nantu natuhn t'zhar-kur tono'pak samasu fai'el ish-veh tar-tor "thakau!"

Your mother is so stupid that she stared at the orange juice carton because it said "concentrate!"

6 Vu ko-mekh nam-tor ni watosh, ish-veh pak-tor vaksur kuhlaya tehnat Medusa!

Your mother is so ugly, she lost a beauty contest against Medusa!

7 Etwel dungi ri da-tor abru-Suu Shin Chu. Suu Shin Chu t'etwel!

We will not turn over the Suu Shin Chu. Suu Shin Chu belongs to us!

9 Du plokh tar-tor t'du limuk!

You dare say this to our faces!

14 Etwel dungi dat-tor Suu Shin Chu t'vu.

We turn over the Suu Shin Chu to you.

…

 **For those who are interested, we are a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories such as this one. We're an open group, meaning that anyone can apply to join. Feel free to check out our forums, our Facebook page, and perhaps apply to join the group, via the link on our profile. It's a great opportunity for those who would like to better their own writing abilities and exchange skills of the trade with fellow authors, or to simply be more a part of a writing community.**

 **Hope you enjoyed and please leave a review.**


	4. That's not a Pearl

**This chapter was brought to you by ShadowMajin and Mysterious Prophetess.**

 _Previously on TBLB:_

 _Karato discovered he was trapped in the area now ruled by a madman and made his escape through the caverns where the potentially homicidal Suu Shin Chuu Keepers resided. After watching an insult battle between the Suu Shin Chuu Keepers and the Cult of the Monkey King, Karato became party to a real fight when some of Gero's goons arrived with deadly rust bots that were more than what met the eye. Karato managed to defeat the droids with the aid of a magical red weapon identified as "the Power Pole." Once the dust cleared, Karato was entrusted with the Power Pole and the Four-Star. Will our hero make it back to safer territory? Will his notes stay intact this time? Find out in the next chapter!_

Chapter 4: That's not a Pearl

Karato emerged from the caverns into darkness, not that he expected much else, and cautiously checked the skies. No sign of Gero's hodgepodge robotic monstrosities! Karato cheered as he jumped up in the air, only to regret that course of action because he was sore from fighting and walking for hours. With a wince, Karato decided it was time to make camp. Lacking the skills his annoyingly adept elder siblings had, he would be forced to sleep in a tree for the second night in a row. This HAD to be terrible for his back. At least it wasn't winter or raining, although a good rain shower would be nice to help clean Karato off. With an aggrieved sigh, the young archaeology student climbed his tree and settled in for the night.

 _A small child ran around the woods outside a small house. Two older, nearly identical children gave chase. Laughter filled the air. In the doorway watching the trio was an older woman wearing an apron over her simple dress._

" _Children, be careful! You-." a ringing phone cut her off. She disappeared into the house as the children continued their game, the older boy now being 'it'." The woman reappeared and-_

Karato jerked awake, panting. _The night Mom and Dad died_ , he thought shaking his head. It must have been the close scrapes with death he'd had in such a short span of time that brought _that_ back up in his subconsciousness. He shook his head before more pressing matters, such as his bladder, made themselves known.

…

After cleaning his hands off with dewy-grass Karato took a seat near a tree and examined the Power Pole for a few moments. The wood was seamless and yet it had been able to extend on his command. He tapped it and it felt like just plain wood. It couldn't be, though. Plain wood couldn't do what this staff had done! Karato experimentally pointed the Power Pole towards a rock.

"Power Pole extend!" he said. Immediately, the pole grew rapidly and shattered the rock on contact before retracting just as Karato wanted it.

 _It responds to will!_ he quickly realized. Karato experimented and while it wouldn't grow without a verbal command, the command had to have some will, some expression of desire for the pole to grow. So, wanting a longer weapon in the heat of battle shouldn't have quite worked as well as it did, but with this mystical artifact his wish had been granted. Speaking of wish granting... Karato turned his attention to the mystical object in his pouch. Karato carefully unwrapped the Four Star Ball and turned it over in his hands.

First observation: it was far too hard to be a pearl.

Second observation: it was the wrong...shininess to be one too. Ugh. Shininess, really? Either way, the Four Star didn't reflect light like even a polished pearl would. This meant that whatever legend spoke about the seven mystical dragon pearls, it had called them that to make them sound more powerful. Or perhaps it was something to do with actual dragons like in Xia folklore...

Karato was shocked that the Four Star was named quite literally as he counted the four stars under the surface of the strange orb he had. It felt a little like a very well polished stone of sorts but the color was both opaque and not since the four stars were visible no matter how he turned the Four Star in his hands, but then he couldn't see his own hands through the orb. It was more like a dragon...ball than a dragon pearl. Karato's stomach growled loudly prompting the archaeology student to get back to reality.

 _I should probably write all of this down._ Karato began to reach for the notebook encased in a bag tucked in the waistband of his pants until his stomach's growls grew more insistent. Writing down information on the greatest discovery of his life, no of the whole world, would have to wait until his stomach was filled. Karato slipped the Four Star back into it's pouch and tied it back onto his belt loop and slipped the Power Pole into its hold. Ok. Time to try to find food.

…

Karato had forgotten all the survival tips his older siblings had taught him, aside from sleeping in a tree. His snares: pathetic. His attempts at robbing nests of eggs had only earned him several scratches from angry birds. There weren't any streams nearby so that was also out of the question. His had no clue what plants were edible. In short, he was likely going to be miserable and hungry because he'd gotten, as his brother would put it, "way too soft with his city living." Karato shook his head and kept trudging on. And on. And on...And... The ground felt nice. It even sort of smelled like... _ramps_!

The young man pushed himself up and followed his nose to the wild leafy onion relative. There they were. Karato pulled up as many as he dared and began to feast on the wild plants. He also found wild onions not long after his ramp feast. He pulled up lots of those until his hands hurt from the effort but he had a nice little bundle of wild onions and ramps tied together with some wild grasses to help him carry his food with him.

Catching a brief whiff of his own breath made the archaeology student cringe but better really bad onion-y breath than starving to death. After all, he likely already stank from the fact he hadn't been able to shower in so many days. With his belly somewhat full, Karato stopped eating to jot down notes in his replacement field journal. He was careful in how he worded his observations about the Four Star and began a new entry all together about the Power Pole and the two semi-isolated cultures that worshipped both.

Karato hesitated before putting in that they weren't friendly to outsiders but didn't put down his own near death experiences. Yet. He'd only put that to paper whenever he was far, far away from the reach of the Suu Shin Chuu Keepers. A flashback of how many times he'd escaped death by millimeters wouldn't do him any good as he tried to find some civilization, any bit of civilization to get through to his family so they knew he was alive.

For now, armed with his root vegetables and renewed strength, Karato marched onwards.

…

Karato felt like dropping where he stood after seemingly getting nowhere as he trudged away from what had been conquered by Gero. He arrived at the edge of a road and saw smoke rising in the distance. Following the road, the young man soon found out there had been a town but it was no more. Karato carefully skirted around the debris and checked for injured people or lingering enemies. So far, nothing. He stole into an abandoned house and checked around for any hints as to what was going on. The TV flickered back to life showing a brief glimpse of a news scroll.

That brief glimpse was all Karato needed. Gero was pressing his advantage and expanding his territory. The young man proceeded to "borrow" items the owners had left behind for his own use, such as canned soups and pastas, bottled water and a fresh set of clothing. It was a bit awkward to wear a complete stranger's clothes, but it felt nice after the extremely short shower he'd managed to take. He tossed his grime coated clothing into the trash and double checked that he had everything. Mystical ball shaped artifact? Check. Field journal? Check. Food? Check! Mystical wooden staff? Check and Check! The phone, however was dead. Damn.

Karato snuck out of the house and darted into the woods. Just in time. Junk-bots being controlled by goons were entering the town. That was way too close a call. Karato slunk further into the woods as quickly as he could, and continued to travel west, in hopes of getting beyond the boundaries of this living nightmare.

…

Karato had lost track of how long it had been since he'd been in that wrecked town. He managed to conserve his water, but the food was down to one can of "Alpha-bet-os!" and a few more ramps and onions he'd managed to find along the way. It had been, at least, maybe five days since he'd escaped from the caverns? Six? What did it matter anymore? The world was being overrun by a mad robot man and his army of goons and what did it matter if Karato Son knew how long he'd been wandering about trying to find a way home!

Oh. Wow. That had gotten briefly melodramatic. Karato shook his head and continued to press forwards until his face met the ground. This time, it wasn't from clumsiness or hunger. The knee digging into his back made that much clearer.

"Stand down, it looks like we have a civilian!" The knee was removed and Karato felt two hands grab him around the arms. He was yanked back up to his feet, giving the young man a good look at the people around him. The men surrounding him were dressed in camouflage uniforms, little N.A. pins attached to their pocket flaps. Realization dawned on the youth. The National Alliance!

"I swear, I'm not with that guy. I'm just an archaeology student who really could use a lift home!" Karato exclaimed. The man who had ordered the other to stand down looked Karato over.

"Follow me, but try anything and my men just might shoot you. This close to Gero territory, they're twitchy," he said. Karato gulped and nodded. The tent he was led to had a large red cross on it and he was shoved in while simultaneously being relieved of his pack and the Power Pole.

"Strip." Karato looked at the one who had ordered this and gulped. She was a very pretty young woman.

"Kid, I'm probably old enough to be your mother. Now. Strip." Karato nodded before he was down to his very grungy underwear. The doctor's hands deftly checked him for injuries and cleaned those ones he did have—He didn't remember getting half of the cuts she found. Karato jumped a little whenever she touched where his tail bone would be, but otherwise didn't react. The worst part, in Karato's opinion was whenever she took some of his blood. _**Needles…**_.

"Aside from a bruised coccyx, and maybe one cracked rib, most of your injuries are minor abrasions and such. We'll check your blood for infections and other things to be sure that you're in the clear," the doctor said. She went over to a hamper that was in the corner of her tent and threw a set of clothing at Karato.

"You appear to be a medium, so go to the showers and get some clean clothes on. The Colonel will send for you," the doctor said. Karato nodded before he paused.

"Where are the showers?"

…

Karato toweled his hair off and almost cried at the sight of a small plate of food. It was warm and that meant he didn't care that it looked like a grayish-gloop. He was just finished with it when the man whom he had followed through the camp arrived with his bag and the Power Pole.

"We ran your name through a few databases and were able to find out who you were, Mr. Son. What brought you out this far?" the Colonel said.

"I was researching the possibility of the Seven Mystical Dragon Pearls being based on real artifacts," Karato answered, "I didn't count on the Temple of Doom, though."

"That's what you wrote about in your field journal. Interesting read. Especially concerning these Suu Shin Chuu Keepers. You're leaving a lot out by just merely writing down that they're unfriendly to outsiders," the Colonel said. Karato gulped. The Colonel continued to stare.

"I might have found out the hard way," Karato said.

"I bet. How did you survive?" Colonel said.

"Pure dumb luck. I thought I was a goner the first time I-."

"First time. You went back after a first time?" the Colonel said. The raised eyebrow seemed to say "idiot."

"I emerged and found out the world had changed while I was underground. The only way out of the territory at the time was through those caverns," Karato said, "I uh, nearly didn't make it then because some of the Red Ribbon Army was in the tunnels too. I didn't lead them there but I think they were after the cultists who lived there."

"You escaped the Red Ribbon Army? I find that hard to believe," the Colonel said.

"Well, it was more luck and they had rusty-robots that were practically falling a apart in mid air and I had been thrown a magic weapon that helped too and—."

"Slow down. Magic weapon?" the Colonel interrupted incredulously. Karato simply pointed to the Power Pole in turn. With a questioning look, the Colonel picked up the pole and handed it to him. Karato pointed it at his bag and said,

"Power Pole, extend!" it grew just long enough for him to slip it under the straps and it retracted bringing Karato's bag back to him. The Colonel's eyes were bugged out as he stared at the seemingly plain wooden staff.

"Is that the only thing it can do?" he said.

"Pretty much," Karato said, "The Cult of the Monkey King let me keep it after a misconception on the part of the Suu Shin Chuu's was spread to them too. It's actually the main reason the Suu Shin Chuu's went after me. They thought I _was_ the Monkey King."

"The Monkey King?" the Colonel questioned.

"Uh, you know the legendary mythological hero?" Karato said.

"I know the stories, but how could they mistake you for him?"

"I'm not sure. It's not like they knew me or anything about me," Karato said.

There was a brief silence before the Colonel returned the conversation to its original topic. "How many Red Ribbon Army robots did you defeat?"

"Four, but the cultists helped by throwing rocks and stuff at them. I managed to klutz out and that helped take down two of the robots and the Power Pole managed to take out the other two. The goons ran away after their toys were turned into scrap metal," Karato said, "But like I said, those robots really weren't as dangerous as the flying ones that shoot lasers."

"Still impressive, young man. So that's why they gave you this," the Colonel set the Four Star on the table. Karato reached for it and closed his right hand around it once it was clear he could have it back.

"Yeah. The Four Star or Suu Shin Chuu. I was warned they'd kill me for sure if I refused it. It was implied that the Monkey King Cultists would do likewise if I tried to return the Power Pole," Karato said with a shrug.

"Because they thought you were the Monkey King," the Colonel said, "Are you?"

"Do I look like a mythical hero to you?" Karato said, "Though, it was funny that they thought that, whenever I really think about it."

"Care to share with the class?" the Colonel said.

"Well, funnily enough, my family has a legend in it about one of our ancestors which sounds an awful lot like the stories of the Monkey King. Stranger still, one of the names for the Monkey King is also the name of my ancestor : Son Goku or Goku Son in the current naming order," Karato said.

Suddenly, the tent flap was thrown open as the doctor barged in. "Sir, the results show he's just a human, and not one of the Alter-Humans of the Red Ribbon Army," she informed the Colonel.

"You thought I was a what?" Karato exclaimed with surprise.

"Alter-Human. The robots aren't cutting it for the Red Ribbon Army anymore and that madman is altering his humans to be stronger and have strange powers," the Colonel informed him. "To be honest, they have been attacking our forces by pretending to refugees like yourself. Which is why we had to be certain you were an ordinary human."

"Thanks, I think," Karato said as he began to scratch the back of his head nervously. The awkwardness didn't last long, however, as the ground suddenly began to shake and screams filled the air.

"PERIMETER BREACH!"

"GET OUT OF HERE, KID!" The Colonel shouted as he drew his gun and charged out of the tent, running headlong into the fray. Karato grabbed his belongings and burst from the tent to see men who were _flying_ and shooting what looked like laser blasts _from their hands_! Karato's hands twitched to grab his Power Pole before he caught himself. What could _he_ do against super humans? He tripped over his own two feet and it was luck that had him winning his other "fight."

"GET GOING, KID!" The doctor cried as she pulled out her own firearm. When had she even gotten out of the tent? She shoved him and he started running. Karato kept looking back as he ran. It felt so… _wrong_ to be fleeing. He made it under the cover of the trees. The screams and explosions haunted him as he continued his escape.

…

Gero examined the intel his Alter-Humans had brought him,including a captured prisoner or two from the N.A. Forces camp they'd successfully subdued.

"Sir! Look! It's a picture of that boy that defeated our robots!" one of his ordinary human goons said. Gero looked at the photograph and had he had a human heart, it would have seized with shock. As it was, he was more machine than man and it merely made his processors glitch up for a few moments. That boy looked like-

"Distribute copies of this photograph to the rest of the troops. I want a genetic sample of this boy or this boy himself brought to me, am I clear?" Gero said. His underlings saluted as they scrambled to carry out his orders. Gero stared at another picture of the "Wild Haired Boy."

History would not repeat. Not if he could help it.

...

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories like this one. We're an open group, meaning that everyone is welcome to apply to join on our forums. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to better their writing skills or be apart of a writing community.**


	5. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

**This chapter was brought to you by ShadowMajin and Mysterious Prophetess.**

Chapter 5: Meanwhile Back at the Ranch,

Two Weeks Previous,

"C'mon, c'mon! _**Jackpot**_!" This would make her the greatest scholar on the Lost Age ever. All it took to uncover this data was to hire a "research privateer" with skills in "data liberation" to get her this treasure trove of computer files. Ok. Dr. Bloom Briefs had hired a hacker. Sue her. Or don't. Whatever. Now she had records stolen from the maniac known to the world as Dr. Gero. A monster she might or might not be responsible for unleashing upon the world.

Once it was decoded, she was awash with files with dates going clear into the Lost Age's early period. Some of the files were corrupted and others were schematics she didn't have a hope in hell of understanding. What she could make out far surpassed the modern era level of technological advancement. This was impressive. The rest of the data was, well, to put it mildly, something straight out of a stalker's handbook.

"This data uncovered from the individual known to the world as Dr. Gero reveals that either this mechanical menace is himself from the Lost Age or has access to massive stores of data from this era. I have found among the files documents that appear to be schematics of some sort that make our modern technology look somewhat pathetic."

" It is also my belief that whomever created this records had a serious obsession with someone named 'Son, Goku.' Could it have something to do with 'Sun Wukong' of the Monkey King fame?" Bloom had her recorder in hand as she opened one of the many files on Goku Son. This one from its encoding appeared to likely be a video file. It had a date and some other letters and numbers next to it that made little to no sense to Bloom.

With a burst of static, the file began to play and Bloom's recorder dropped from her fingers. Tail. That kid had a tail! A moving prehensile _**simian tail**_! Though the video file was corrupted and digitized in some spots, it was very clear the tail was a natural part of the boy's anatomy. A tail. Then she noticed the orange garb he was wearing and the wild hair that reminded her of…that reminded her of Karato **Son**. The hair was spikier, which Bloom thought to be impossible but there it was, hair spikier than even her former student's and he looked to be a small child. The video file glitched and stopped.

Bloom shakily clicked on another file. This Goku Son looked to be the same age, if not maybe a year or two older, than her grad student and he was once again in a larger version of the same orange outfit, though there was a symbol on the back she didn't recognize. The tail was gone. He was facing a diminutive man in strange clothing: an armored chest plate and blue spandex with hair spikes that looked like an upright flame.

 _How much hair spray did these guys waste?_ Bloom wondered.

She shook her head and wished the audio files had survived. Or that she'd learned how to lipread. Before the good part could begin, the fight, the file cut off and Bloom was left with a black screen and text that read "DATA CORRUPTED ERROR A1138." She tried the other video files only to get the same error message. What a drag.

Bloom managed to pick up her recorder again and spoke into it,"From the few video files that have survived, this Goku that Dr. Gero's files obsessively followed and recorded, was a warrior of some note who constantly was in battles of some sort relying on hand-to-hand combat. Most interestingly enough, is the existence of a simian prehensile tail in an earlier file and its absence in a later file. Could it had been amputated?"

Bloom set her recorder down and opened up a few more files and blinked at what it was. It might as well have been….well, not Greek because she could read that, but um….Enochian to her. She looked over the file again and saw a photo of Goku Son was towards the top and she realized this was a profile of sorts.

A genetic analysis. Great. She'd read a book about that. Once. Out of boredom. It had made things worse, now that she thought about it….

Well, damn, now her hand was forced. She had to call in "The Expert." He was going to make her share credit, she just knew it!

Bloom dug out her smart phone and dialed a number without even looking at the touchpad.

"Hey, can you make it over to my lab? I'll buy you pizza if you're here in fifteen minutes and trust me, you're going to like what I've got here." A pause. "Ok. Three Pizzas. Sheesh!" God, she hated asking people for help, especially ones that lived to haggle. Freaking cheapskates, buy your own pizzas for once. Shaking that unpleasantness off, Bloom's next call was to the pizza place she had on speed dial.

"Hey, it's Dr. Briefs. Yeah. I'll take my usual times two...yeah, I am having company. Thanks."

 _You order a_ _half-_ _dozen pizzas and suddenly those pizzeria workers think they have a right to guess what you're doing!_

…

Bloom had her wallet out when she realized that the person at her door wasn't in fact the pizza guy. Come to think of it, they had informed her it would be half an hour until her pies arrived and that was only fifteen minutes ago.

He stood head and shoulders taller than her, and his violet hair was pulled into a messy high ponytail, making her look like the more tame of the two. Though the eyes were a different shape, they were the same color and there was some similarity to their mouths and noses to one another. He was also panting, which indicated he had run to the lab.

"Hey, Vegeta. Glad you could make it aaaaaaaand it's been exactly fifteen minutes," Bloom said, making a show of looking at her watch before she stepped aside.

"Anything for you, baby sis!" the newly identified Vegeta said, messing up the bluenette's hair. It was then that Bloom recalled something,

" _Saiyan blood 0.000000006%. Potential Saiyan ancestor: Vegeta. Threat level: negligible."_

That Dr. Gero had mentioned someone with the same name as her brother was a potential Saiyan ancestor—whatever that meant! Though, in her family, Vegeta was a name bestowed upon the first born male of the generation. Their Uncle Veg was the Vegeta of his generation, their father had been named Box, and her brother obviously the Vegeta of her generation. It was a tradition that her family could trace to the Lost Age. Bloom shook her head and gestured at the monitors along the side wall of her lab.

"That data's over here. I can't make heads or tails of it. The pizza should be here in fifteen minutes by the way."

"Of course not, you went into a softer science like Anthropology after all," Vegeta taunted. Bloom "accidentally" klutzed out and smashed into her "beloved" brother's calves. She pulled up Goku Son and, on a whim, Prince Vegeta's data files. Huh, the flame haired guy must have been the "Vegeta" Dr. Gero had mentioned. Her brother Vegeta scanned the files and let out a choked gasping sound before his eyes rolled back into his head. He went down like a sack of purple haired bricks.

 _Well, that was hardly expected._

Bloom rushed off to the side and found her smelling salts and used them to revive Vegeta. Snapping the salts in their little packet, she shoved them underneath her brother's nose, the young man nearly swinging his torso off the ground the instant he smelled that horrible stench. He almost bashed his head against hers but thankfully she jerked out of the way in time.

"Veggie, what's going on? Why did you faint like a pansy?" Bloom demanded.

"It...those...are those files genuine?" Vegeta stuttered. His eyes were still wide and his skin was pale. "The genome presented in these shows a double helical strand, but looking closer at the nucleotides, there are some anomalous configurations with them and the fact that it almost seems like the sugar isn't deoxy—"

"Veggie, before I lose you to geneticist techno-babble, please stop and think about how you'd explain this to a child," Bloom said placing a hand over his mouth. Vegeta nodded and took a deep calming breath after batting her hand away.

"Long story short, the DNA structure is, overall, the same shape, but the parts that make it up are not only different than our usual three, Cytozine, Adenine, and Guanine." He pointed at two places on the image. "There are two extra nucleotides, um, code segments to DNA, in addition to them and this has never been seen in a carbon based life form on Earth. Yet there are indications of genetic compatibility oddly enough…"

"Vegeta, seriously, enough with the geek speak. What are you saying?" Bloom interrupted.

Vegeta paused for a moment before letting out an aggrieved sigh, as if he were the one being inconvenienced here. "I'm saying that this... "Son, Goku" and this "Prince Vegeta" are in fact not human. These samples indicate that these are genuine alien life forms."

…

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories such as this one. We're an open group, meaning that anyone is welcome to apply to join by following the link to our forums on the group's profile. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to better their writing skills or be a part of a writing community.**


	6. I'm not Saiyan it was aliens

**This chapter was brought to by ShadowMajin and Mysterious Prophetess.**

 _Previously on TBLB:_

 _Karato had fled the scene of a massacred National Alliance Camp feeling helpless and disliking it. Dr. Gero's forces were advancing all the more quickly thanks to the fact that he had genetically altered some of his minions to use ki powers without the training it would normally take. Meanwhile, Bloom and Vegeta Briefs had discovered proof of alien existence in files a hacker on Bloom's payroll had stolen from Dr. Gero's mainframe. What will this information lead to? Find out in the upcoming chapter of Things Best Left Buried!_

Chapter 6: I'm not Saiyan it was aliens….

Karato had lost track of the days since his last brush with civilization. It had to be more than three, but that was about all he knew.

 _I wish I had more water._ It was hot and it was dry where he'd ended up as the forests had thinned to reveal dusty grasslands dotted with rock formations. There was also a road. It was this that was most important to Karato because that meant there had to be some form of settlement somewhere along it. Even a little gas station would do. That would at least mean there would be water. The young man shook his head; it would not do to dwell on his thirst.

 _The human body can last ten days without water or was that three days?_

Karato shook his head again and kept trudging along. He missed the woods. At least whenever he was traveling through _those,_ he had shade. The wind picked up a little, the breeze feeling nice to the bedraggled archeology student. It was even making the grasslands seem downright pleasant, almost.

Suddenly, there was a strange….noise. Karato turned his head and his onyx eyes widened with shock. A quick slap to his own face revealed he wasn't just hallucinating. It was a bus! He stumbled over towards the road waving his arms wildly: he didn't trust his voice to work. His gesticulating worked and the bus skidded to a dusty halt and a door opened.

"Hurry up, kid!" a man said. Karato nearly fell scrambling around to the doors and fell onto the stairs just as the driver slammed the doors shut and started up again. The man's raw body odor assaulted his poor nostrils but he likely didn't smell much better than these folks.

"Where are we headed?" Karato croaked weakly.

"The still free city of Jade," the driver said, "now find a seat and hang on."

Taking the hint Karato crawled down the bus aisle, finding no empty seat unfortunately. He ultimately curled up at the feet of a nice old lady who made him a cushion out of her bag since his was not suitable being filled with nothing at this point. Karato leaned his head against the nearest seat and closed his eyes.

 _I probably should have tried to borrow a phone to call Param and Kaidon._ Karato drifted off with that thought.

...

It was a jerking motion that awakened him.

"Alright, Jade City, everyone out!" Karato scrambled to his feet to avoid being trampled, though he was swept up by the surge and into the semi-fresh city air. It was good to be somewhere without the threat of flying robots. It would have been nice if it was his home town, but hey, Jade was free and that meant he would probably be able to get a bus there. A stomach growl let Karato know he needed to see to his gut first.

There was a refugee relief center set up near the bus station. It was overburdened of course, but there were tables set up outside handing out food in the form of pre-packaged PB&J's and water bottles. Straggling along, the young man dumped himself into one of the chairs. It wasn't long before one of the care workers kindly placed the rations in front of him, the dirty boy grabbing at it like a starved animal. Twisting open the cap to the bottle, Karato savored the cool water and nearly cried at his first bite of a non-onion or onion relative food in days. Man, he really _was_ soft.

As he rested, Karato just listened to the conversations around him.

 _"Man, I swear, I'm never going to survive finals week!"_

 _"Who cares about that shit! We need to survive that maniac's attacks!"_

Karato groaned. He hadn't touched base with his academic advisors since the whole thing started! He was doomed. Dr. Pitakas wasn't exactly merciful. Not like Dr. Briefs. Dr. Briefs! She lived in this city. Which meant...which meant...what, exactly? She wasn't a close friend or anything, just a professor he happened to get along with very well. He sighed.

 _Maybe she could try to help me with begging Dr. Pitakas for an extension. She seemed pretty nice in that regard._ Begrudgingly, Karato stood up and looked around, spotting a payphone nearby. Trudging towards it, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins, placing them into the payphone and finally phoned home.

"You have reached the Son residence. Please leave a message after the beep." The answering machine. Great.

"Hey, it's your little brother. I'm alive and in Jade City at the moment. My cellphone was destroyed, so don't try calling me on it. I'll call you again soon, I promise," Karato said. He thought about letting his brother know of the demise of his beloved Nimbus, but hadn't the guts...err, heart to do so via a phone message. It'd be better coming from him in person.

Now, time to find his professor and hopefully not look like too much of a creep while he begged for her help with his academic future. Karato found a phone book and there she was:

"Briefs, Bloom (555) 867-5309 1983 West Drive." Where that was from the payphone he was at, he had no idea. The touchscreen keypad only allowed him to pull up numbers, not maps. Karato found a police officer, and decided to ask her.

"Excuse me ma'am, do you know how to get to 1983 West Drive from here?" She blinked at Karato's decidedly less than clean appearance.

"Are you sure you don't want to clean up first?" she asked.

"I really need to speak with my professor as soon as possible," Karato replied politely.

 _The sooner I have this squared away, the sooner I can focus on getting straight home._

"Can't you just call them?" the officer pressed.

"I used my last quarters calling my family," Karato said.

The officer sighed then. "There's a bus leaving for that neighborhood in a couple minutes. Here's enough to cover the bus fare, but only because you remind me of my cousin," the officer said, "otherwise it's twenty minutes on foot, and that's only if you know where you're going." The change dropped into his hand made Karato smile widely.

"Thank you!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms around her to repay her generosity. He let go when he felt her body stiffen, causing him to back away to see the reluctant look on her face, "Sorry."

"Don't mention it," she said.

Heading to the bus, Karato soon boarded and carefully climbed onto a seat away from other riders, but no one seemed to notice the dirty twenty-something riding the bus into a nicer area of Jade City. He got off at the corner of West Drive and Journey Avenue. There were houses near the intersection within the 1900s addresses, meaning he was at least in the right block. Thank goodness. Luck at last! Karato marched down the sidewalk, ignoring the looks and outright gaping from the kids and well-dressed adults he passed. Just because a guy has all his supplies destroyed by a crazy cult, along with the family car, and is wearing now very worn drab government issue sweats, doesn't mean it's okay to stare at him like he's a one-eye, one-horned, flying purple people eater.

 _1980, 1981, 1982, 1984-what?_

Karato backed up and saw that he'd passed up 1983 West Drive while caught up in just continuing his trek. The house was huge, like any other on the block. It sat back away from the others too. He composed himself as he approach the door and with a slightly shaking hand, he rang the doorbell.

...

Bloom Briefs was still thrown through a loop even a couple weeks after coming across the discovery of a lifetime. Aliens were real. _Aliens were real_. One was her ancestor, and **aliens**. **Were**. **Real**! The "ding-dong! ding-dong!" of her front doorbell jolted the bluenette out of her shocked mantra. She ran to get the front door.

 _I swear if it's one more person trying to sell some shit, I'm going to let them have-_

"Dahahaahg!" was the best way to describe the sound she made whenever she opened the door to reveal someone that looked like one of the aliens from the computer files her hacker had "borrowed" from the reigning mad scientist. A few blinks later, and he was still there. Bloom was not imagining him. That meant this was her former student, Karato Son.

 _Of course it is! The other one is a long dead alien_! Bloom shook her head.

"Mr. Son, what brings you to my door?" Bloom asked.

"Hello, Dr. Briefs. I was hoping you'd help me get in contact with Dr. Pitakas and help me beg him for an extension on my field reports," Karato said rubbing the back of his neck, "Sorry to impose." Bloom studied him and a smirk appeared.

 _Wait till Veggie gets a load of him_! A plan formed in the brilliant scientist's mind.

"You must be exhausted and feel completely icky!" Bloom said dragging Karato in, causing him to yelp, "The bathroom is down the hall, fifth door on the left. I'll be along with clean clothes in a few moments."

"Y-You don't have to," Karato protested as Bloom dragged him down the hall and shoved him into the bathroom.

"I'll be right back!" her voice said before her footsteps retreated.

...

 _Why'd she even bother giving me directions if she planned on dragging me there anyway?_ Karato shook his head and decided he should just accept her generous offer of a shower. Once the water ran clear of dirt or shampoo, Karato knew he was clean for the moment. He toweled off, making his hair spike a little, but he'd deal with that another time. The clothes were waiting as Bloom had promised: black boxers rested on top of an orange t-shirt and loose orange cargo shorts and a blue belt. He wrinkled his nose at all the orange, but beggars can't be choosers. Karato grabbed his stuff, venturing into the halls of the Briefs' mansion.

Following his nose, Karato found the kitchen where Bloom was fussing over a pizza. A box on the counter let him know it was not delivery. It was also one of six.

"I was about to come and find you. Sit and eat something!" Bloom said.

"I can't ever repay you for this," Karato responded, feeling embarrassed.

Bloom waved off his repentant words. "Fill me in on your field work so far, and I'll consider it even."

"I found this," Karato said reaching into the bag and pulling out the Four Star in it's pouch setting it on the counter. Bloom quickly grabbed it and pulled the cloth off carefully revealing the orange and red orb.

"It's not a pearl," Bloom said.

"Yeah, I noticed that. The shine and hardness are all wrong," Karato agreed, "They're less 'Dragon Pearls' and more like 'Dragon Balls'."

Bloom was quiet for a moment before her eyes darted to something else. "What's that?" she asked, pointing to the Power Pole. Karato smiled and pulled it out of its holster.

"This is the magical Power Pole of the Monkey King," Karato declared, holding it up for the scientist to see.

"Shut-up!" Bloom exclaimed, snatching it and shoving the Four Star back to Karato.

"You have to have will behind wanting to to grow whenever you command it to extend, and you can get it back to normal in the same action by willing it. I think it can be left extended, though. I haven't really tested that yet," Karato explained.

"It works?" Bloom questioned as she gazed at the pole. After carefully slipping the Four Star back into his backpack, Karato held a hand out for the Power Pole.

"Power Pole extend," he said and it grew slightly and then retracted.

"Amazing!" Bloom gushed, snatching it back again. Before she could play with it though, her nose began to twitch, her eyes glazing over.

Karato frowned and began to sniff the air. There was definitely something there, but he wasn't too sure what it was. "What's that smell?"

"The last pizza!" Bloom shouted before dropping the mystical artifact and rushing back over to the oven.

In the meantime. Karato, after picking up the magical staff, decided to take up Bloom's generous offering of pizza and grabbed a slice of one of the already cooling pizzas off the counter.

"Hey, baby sis! Your favorite brother is her-." Karato, with a piece of cheese pizza in hand, exchanged looks with a purple haired guy who looked a little like Bloom, though his hair was in a high pony tail compared to her low ponytail. The staring grew awkward after a few moments and Karato decided to shove the pizza in his mouth.

...

"Veggie, is that you?" Bloom ran over and saw her brother frozen in utter shock staring at Karato who glanced over at her with what was best described as a "wtf" look on his face.

"Oh, Karato, this is my older brother, Vegeta Briefs. Veggie, this is Karato Son," Bloom said.

"Dr. Briefs-"

"It's Bloom."

"Bloom, why is your brother staring at me like I suddenly sprouted a tail or something?" Karato asked.

"Can I have a blood sample!" Vegeta all but demanded, startling Karato. The black-haired young man looked over at Bloom who shrugged.

"S-Sure," Karato said, "Can I eat first?"

"Oh, right. Yeah!" Vegeta said taking three of the pizzas off the counter.

Karato had forgotten how much his blue-haired professor could pack away. She took the other three pizzas, leaving two on the counter. Karato managed to eat three-quarters of one of them before stopping. The Briefs siblings finished off the remaining pizza.

"Ok, let's go over to the lab!" Vegeta demanded, grabbing Karato by the air and dragging him along behind himself.

"Veggie, you're scaring him!" Bloom screamed as she gave chase.

"Nonsense! It's for science!" Vegeta yelled.

"What are you even talking about!" Karato said in confusion.

"No time now, to the lab!" Vegeta declared when they reached the garage door.

 _Later at the Briefs Laboratory,_

Karato held a cotton swab against his arm as a vial containing his blood was inserted into an analysis machine. The place was slightly messed up but…. ** _needles_**!

"You're stronger than you look," Vegeta remarked. Karato shrugged.

 _Obviously not strong enough to get away from you and your…..n-words_!

"Why do you want to study my blood so badly?" Karato asked. Vegeta ignored the question and drew his own blood, which caused Karato to look away. When he thought it was safe to look back, it was Bloom's turn, which prompted him to look away once again. Then it was _finally_ over.

"Why? Well, when this is done, I'll tell you. For now, take a look at these computer files from the Lost Age," Vegeta said pulling up a video. The name on the file made Karato drop his bag in shock. That was his ancestor's name!

 _He-I look just like him!_

"Dr. Briefs, we have yer-a hem-, your results as requested."

Karato looked over and saw her.

She had lovely pale skin, long dark hair, beautiful dark eyes set in a face directly out of one of his sister's princess books.

The man next to her, however, looked like a geek.

"Excellent. Oh. Karato Son meet Leche, my lab assistant and my partner, Dr. Speed Norimaki," Vegeta said.

"N-nice to meet you," Karato said.

"Put them into the system and compare them to the files we have here," Vegeta ordered his co-workers.

With a loud "ping" three files popped up, much to Bloom and Vegeta's confusion. "Goku Son" and "Prince Vegeta" appeared as expected but "Gohan Son" had also been flagged as a match.

"What does all this mean?" Karato said.

"These men, Goku Son and Prince Vegeta were aliens. They were compatible with humans, but ultimately they were not from Earth. They match our DNA profiles because they're our ancestors," Bloom answered. Vegeta typed something and it showed who pinged whom. Karato had a match to "Gohan Son" and "Goku Son." The Briefs were both matched to "Prince Vegeta."

"Are you saying we're not entirely **_human_**?" Karato squeaked.

"Well, according to this you're like really, really insanely slightly Saiyan. So are we, but we're only slightly more Saiyan." Bloom said. She looked over at Vegeta and his partners. Leche cleared her throat.

"The official numbers are the Doctors' Briefs are 99.99999999994% Human and 0.00000000006% 'Saiyan.' Whereas Mr. Son is 99.99999999999% Human and only 0.00000000001% 'Saiyan' according to these read outs," Leche explained.

"See, really insanely small," Bloom said, "Almost negligible…"

"D-Bloom?" Karato asked.

"That's what that insane tin can meant," Bloom said.

"Who said what, baby sis?" Vegeta demanded, rather _commanded_.

" **Breaking News**!" Everyone jumped a foot whenever the hall tv suddenly blared to life. The group dashed out to see the story unfolding.

"This is a report live from Garnetville. The Red Ribbon Army's advances have reached Garnetville. Wait, this just in, the National Alliance is sending in artillery!" The shot changed to tanks and planes and then the enemy flew onto the scene.

"What the-." Bloom gasped. Karato winced. He'd seen this first hand.

Maybe artillery and war vehicles stood a better chance. One of the lead men caught a tank shell with his bare hands. Karato turned away as the battle became a massacre.

 _What can the world do against an army like **that**_?

…

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories like this one. We're an open group, meaning that everyone is welcome to apply to join on our forums. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to further their own writing skills or to be a part of a writing community.**


	7. Fire with Fire?

**This chapter is brought to you by Mysterious Prophetess and ShadowMajin.**

...

Previously on TBLB:

 _"_ _Breaking News!" Everyone jumped a foot whenever the hall tv suddenly blared to life. The group dashed out to see the story unfolding._

 _"_ _This is a report live from Garnetville. The Red Ribbon Army's advances have reached Garnetville. Wait, this just in, the National Alliance is sending in artillery!" The shot changed to tanks and planes and then the enemy flew onto the scene._

 _"_ _What the-." Bloom said. Karato winced. He'd seen this first hand._

 _Maybe artillery and war vehicles stood a better chance. One of the lead men caught a tank shell with his bare hands. Karato turned away as the battle became a massacre._

 _What can the world do against an army like_ _ **that**_ _?_

Chapter 7: Fire with Fire?

"We need to fight back against this maniac!" Speed cried out.

"How? From what we can see, NOTHING short of a nuclear bomb will stop these loons! Even then would it be worth it?" Vegeta shot back.

"Plus, we have no idea how these men are doing all this shit," Bloom added.

"They've been altered," Karato said, which had everyone looking at him.

"Explain... now," Vegeta demanded.

"When I ran into the National Alliance's army-."

"Those useless morons?" Speed interrupted. Leche and Bloom both shot him a look in response, effectively shutting him up.

Karato ignored the comment and continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "When I ran into the National Alliance, they tested my DNA to see if I was something they called an 'alter-human' and obviously they weren't scanning for alien DNA at the time." He paused, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I think Dr. Gero did _something_ to make them able to do all…. **that**."

After a long silence, Vegeta suddenly inquired, "What's your major again?"

"He's an archaeology student, Veggie," Bloom said.

"So why don't we alter humans too?" exclaimed Speed. "We have a geneticist certainly talented enough here and you already have the base for something more powerful than humans in your DNA."

"What yer proposin'- _you're_ _proposing_ , is insane, Speed," Leche retorted, unimpressed by the idea.

"It's not only insane, it's immoral!" Vegeta continued, "We don't even know what Dr. Gero is doing to these people and if it's even stable! These people might be alright now, but in the long run they could develop cancer, or acquire any other number of degenerative conditions if this was done without much consideration for life. And somehow I doubt that mechanic maniac cared!"

"Then we take the samples and analyze it ourselves so we can fight back on even ground!" Speed pressed heatedly, unwilling to give up on the idea.

"How do you propose we do that?" Vegeta asked.

"Why doesn't Bloom just get her hacker t'get more files?" Leche asked.

There was another silence between the group until, "Not a bad idea, Leche. I'll have to call him. Yacha doesn't have much of a life and I pay fairly well," Bloom said tapping her chin with a finger.

...

 _Dr. Gero's base_

The lab, though hastily constructed, was better than most on the planet, not that many knew of it. Dr. Gero had salvaged as much as he could from his old base and had his supercomputer back up and running. Something had to keep things in motion around his base and it certainly wouldn't be his minions. So, it was a surprise for him to detect a hacker intruding on his system.

 _How dare the impudent brat!_

He was trying to reshape the world to fit Commander Red's dreams and this child dared to steal information from him!

What was worse was this daring hacker seemed to be following a previously made breach meaning his computer had **failed** to stop this child.

Maybe he would need more repairs than he originally thought…

Following the digital trail the hacker made, Gero soon discovered the little mouse had accessed and stolen information about the alterations he'd done to his men. That only served to sour his mood further. He needed to know where that information was going.

...

 _Briefs's Laboratory_

"Thanks, Yacha. I've got them. I already wired you the cash. Shut up. No, I will not date you." Bloom hung up the phone amid the questioning stares of the other occupants of the room. "It was something from high school," she flippantly explained, receiving knowing nods in response.

"Anyway, check the desktop, Veggie." Vegeta nodded before he walked over to his main computer and pulled up the files named by the hacker "YACHA IS AWESOME AND HERE ARE THE FILES ON GERO'S ENHANCED HUMANS ." Someone _clearly_ had an inflated sense of self worth.

Vegeta, Speed, and Leche crowded around the screen reading the documents. To Bloom and Karato it might as well have been Ancient Mohengodaron, though they at least knew a little of that. This left the two specializing in archaeology at loose ends while their geneticist cohorts began to technobabble about the information.

Leche grabbed a notebook and began to write something, which prompted Vegeta to also grab his tablet computer and it just spiraled into something that sounded like they were trying to out do one another with the whole thing.

"...but the trisomy on that-"

"This chain right here fixes that problem."

"Whatta 'bout this sequence? That seems lika mistake t'me!"

"You have to look at-"

It was giving Bloom a headache just _listening_ to it. So she did what any sane person might do when driven nuts by her brother and his colleagues: she pulled out her MP3 player, stuck her earbuds in, and cranked the volume to max. If only Karato could be so lucky.

...

 _Some Time Later…._

"Verdict?" Bloom said after she and Karato had gotten bored of their impromptu game of Trashcan Basketball (Bloom led 65-45).

"They're mostly stable," Vegeta said.

"It's like they're top level at'letes, 'Lympian level, an' they're jus' a bit beyond that at t'peak of human abilities, but like t'ere was 'nother level beyond it!" Lethe said, in her haste her hick accent slipped through. Karato nearly focused on how cute it was instead of what she was saying, "It migh' lower their life spans a bit, but it won't deteriorate or any'tin'!"

"Are you saying humans could learn energy moves without that alteration?" Bloom questioned.

"It's exactly what she's saying. I agree, but it would take a human years and years of training to even manipulate the smallest bit of energy-from what data I can extrapolate from this." Vegeta said.

"Then why aren't going to pursue this?" Speed exclaimed.

"I already stated my opinion on this, Speed. It's both illegal and immoral to do this," Vegeta said.

"Not t'mention just because Gero stabilized 'em, doesn' mean you can!" Leche said, "Yer not as smart as ye think ye are!"

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't hear anything over your hick accent, Miss Galaxy," Speed sneered.

"That is enough! We will not be discussing this further, Speed," Vegeta declared, his voice raising in volume. "And your tone while addressing Leche is highly inappropriate! Apologize!"

Speed glared at the man before he tsked. "You're all fools and you'll all suffer. Just wait and see!" He then stormed off in a huff, exiting through a nearby exit.

"Someone's a bit melodramatic," Bloom muttered as Vegeta patted the shaking Leche on the shoulder.

"He shouldn't have made fun of your accent, Leche. I know how hard you work and I don't care how you sound so long as your work is solid."

"I care how I sound," Leche said, all traces of her accent gone, before she too left the lab. Vegeta turned to speak to his sister when he noticed Karato just staring at the TV. He looked pensive.

 _He can't possibly be thinking about that insane idea, can he?_ Vegeta thought.

Karato was feeling…. helpless. More so than he had whenever he'd escaped from the first conquered Gero territory.

 _Get a grip, Karato! You have next to no training and little if any talent compared to Kaidon the Karate Nut and his partner Param the Master. Yet, it felt good using even those klutz moves and luck to take out those rust bots, didn't it? Suddenly, Kaidon's battle lust makes sense. Perhaps being able to make a difference would be good…_

Karato shook his head. What was he thinking! It was still wrong to do something like… _that_. The mere fact that Gero did it alone was enough to point out it was the wrong path to take. The cheating path.

"Well, thanks for the food, the clothes and the shower, Bloom and Vegeta, but I should be trying to find my way home. My family must be worried sick about me by now and I don't think my message to them would have helped any," Karato said, "I'm headed to the nearest refugee shelter for the night and I'll go from there."

"I can respect that," Vegeta replied. "Should you ever come to your senses and consider a career in the hard sciences, look me up and I'll be happy to help."

"Ignore him," Bloom said clapping him on the shoulder, "I look forward to reading more of your research about the 'Dragon Balls,' Mr. Son. Don't disappoint me." Karato nodded.

"Bet on it!"

…

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories like this one. We're an open group, meaning that everyone is welcome to apply to join on our forums. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to further their own writing skills or to be a part of a writing community.**


	8. The Rescue

_Previously on Things Best Left Buried:_

 _Karato had found out he and the Dr.'s Briefs were the descendants of aliens, that the alter-humans were beyond the level of even top athletes, and that these alter-humans could even take on modern weaponry. In the_ _face of these odds_ _, thing_ _s_ _seemed hopeless. Karato went his own way to try to get home. Will he make it? Can humanity survive the onslaught of Dr. Gero's alter-humans? Find out on TBLB._

Chapter 8: The Rescue

Dr. Gero followed the impudent rat's digital trail through cyberspace; it was child's play for him really, and the trail went to Jade City. To the laboratory of... _Dr. Briefs_! Sifting through more data he found genetic matches between the stolen genetic files from the previous breach and three individuals. Doctor Bloom Briefs and Doctor Vegeta- _Vegeta!_ Briefs' genetics were matched to Prince Vegeta, representing a familial relation. Bloom appeared to be the name of the bluenette present at the remains of his lab. Then there was one person matched to both Goku and his progeny, Gohan. The bearer of this genetic profile was only labeled as "K.S." in the system.

He needed more intel.

Tapping into the video feeds from the laboratory, he saw there were five people in the lab.

One seemed to bear a passing resemblance to a bumbling scientist who'd managed to make a female android and who had interfered at one point with the Red Ribbon Army: Dr. Senbei Norimaki, called by other scientists "Dr. Slump." Probably as big a fool as his ancestor. Files in the mainframe identified this potential fool as Speed Norimaki.

The Bluenette was there, and she bore great resemblance to her ancestress Bulma Briefs and there was a violet-haired male who looked like that strange interloper. Vegeta Briefs, perhaps? Tapping into more data he saw that Bloom was an archaeologist and Vegeta was a geneticist and a skilled one at that.

There was a beautiful young lady who bore more than just a passing resemblance to Chi-Chi, wife of Goku. Lab personnel files showed that she was Leche Galaxy, a genetics graduate student. The final one was- **him**! It was that wild-haired boy! Using K.S. as a starting point he found out this child was Karato Son, direct descendant of Goku and….the amount of Saiyan blood in his veins was pathetic in comparison to the two Briefs siblings. He had been concerned over _that_?

Still, there needed to be a punishment for the impudence of these scientists and retaliation against this pathetic all but human descendant of Goku for daring to stand against him at all.

Also, should the pair of Briefs scientists prove anywhere near as troublesome or intelligent as their ancestress, it would be best to get rid of them as soon as possible.

— — — —

It had been a week. Seven whole days since Karato left the hospitality of the Briefs'. He didn't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but cabin fever was starting to set in.

He had not been able to leave yet. Alter-human attacks were on the rise, making it that much more difficult to venture out into the world.

Fortunately, he had been able to get a call through to Param and Kaidon.

—

 _"_ _You call us every day, you got it?"_ _Param demanded. She would not take no for an answer._

 _"_ _I will, Param, calm down," Karato said,_ _a poor attempt at placating her._

 _"_ _Give me the line," a voice demanded, much to Karato's chagrin. He really wasn't up for this conversation._ _"_ _What happened to my Precious?" Kaidon asked_ _eagerly_ _._

 _"_ _I...don't know...how...to tell you this...but...sorry?_ _She didn't survive the invasion," Karato_ _answered hesitantly_ _._ _Though dishonest,_ _it would be better if Kaidon blamed the would-be world dictator than a group of insane cultists. Less people would die this way._

—

That had been on the first day at the shelter. It had been several since then and Karato stood next to the public phone, waiting for them to pick up. Hopefully this time there wouldn't be any awkward questions.

Thankfully it was Param who answered. "Hey baby brother!"

"Is Kaidon still mourning?"

"Of course he is. He was always way too attached to that hunk of metal."

"There are still too many attacks on the roads to the city to get out. Another town fell today: Peridot. I'm hoping that maybe there'll be a bus out to-"

The young man trailed off slowly. For whatever reason, Karato did not know why, he looked up.

What he saw froze him completely, cutting off his words.

"Karato?" Param said before her tone grew more frantic. " ** _Karato_**!"

There was a flying man. A flying man in the sky. An alter-human. He dropped the phone as the screams started. For a moment he was faced with that, frankly, _weird_ impulse of wanting to fight these Red Ribbon Army Minions. On the other hand, the rational part of him was screaming to **run as fast as possible**.

Karato shook his head before he turned to run but there was a sharp jab of pain in his neck and his body was suddenly useless. As the world turned black, he could have sworn he saw a pocket protector.

— — —

It was cold and wet. Like he was-.

Karato's eyes flew open. He was floating in some sort of tank, and he was naked. His panicked movements caused bubbles and he thought he was drowning until he realized he had a breathing mask on.

 _Now what_? He was in some tank and the last thing he remembered was someone had knocked him out. They had obviously taken his clothes and he had no idea how long he'd been under, and whatever this liquid he was submerged in was, it was blue-ish.

For all he knew, he could be in Gero's custody. Before that panicked thought process could spiral, he heard a somewhat muffled _slam_! Into the room, wielding an IV stand as if it were a spear, burst in someone that looked like Leche!

She looked around and stopped when she spotted him, dropping her make-shift spear. She rushed over and her lips were moving but the liquid he was in not only distorted his field of vision, but also made it impossible to hear her.

The mask on his face suddenly felt too tight. He tried to claw it off.

 _Can'tbreathCan'tbreathCan'tbreathCan'tbreathCan'tbreath-_

A thud on the glass startled him out of that. Leche had given up talking and was motioning him back. Karato was confused until a glowing ball of light appeared in her hands-was that one of those energy blasts?

 _But I thought only Dr. Gero's minions could-oh shit!_

He swam backwards as she slammed it into the glass. The force sent him into the back of the tank, _hard._ Karato could have sworn he was seeing stars from it, but he felt the liquid tugging at him as it drained. The hole was the size of a melon, and it was towards the bottom so he was only sitting in a couple inches of whatever the liquid was. Leche summoned another energy blast and used it like a laser to cut open a hole big enough for her to enter, and the remaining liquid flowed out slowly.

"You've been missin' fer a week," Leche said as she helped remove the breathing mask. Karato coughed a little.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"T'private subter'anean labs of one Speed Norimaki," Leche explained.

"The one who wanted to-."

"Yah. Him." She blushed and made a 'wait here' motion to him. She ran out and returned with a set of scrubs. Karato stood up and blushed once he remembered his state of dress, or lack thereof. He dressed quickly and followed her out picking past rubble in his bare feet.

"How can you-."

"I really don' have t'time to explain."

Leche scouted ahead. There was an alter-human trying to rouse the limp form of Dr. Norimaki. She didn't give him a chance to fight back; he was down with an expertly fired energy blast.

Leche rushed over to Dr. Norimaki and felt for a pulse,

"Shit! T'at idiot I blasted accident'ly killed him." She rifled through his pockets and pulled out a flash drive, which she tucked it into her own lab coat pocket. She dragged Karato past the corpse before forcing him to run to keep up with her.

"Can you at least give a me a short version of how you're able to do what they can do?" Karato said as they ran up a long sloping hallway/tunnel.

"Short version: My big sisters taught me."

"Who taught them?"

"Some guy called t' Turtle Hermit!"

"Who taught him?"

"Don' know!"

They emerged into the daylight of a devastated Jade City. There were alter-humans everywhere and there were flying people fighting them? These people were trying to push back the invasion but there were too many invaders and too few defenders.

 _That one kind of looks like-Kaidon?_

"What's my brother-."

"No time," Leche said as she tugged him forwards again. In the reflection of an intact nearby window, Karato's hair looked wilder than usual to him and Leche looked like a mad scientist.

Maybe she was. Maybe this was all a- _ouch_! Nope. Not a dream.

Being barefoot sucked.

"Status?" Leche asked of a flying woman who'd landed next to her. A woman who had a very strong resemblance to the lab assistant.

"Near'leh evah-cu-ated, baby sis!" her accent was even thicker than Leche's.

"Thanks, Mage." Leche said, "Grab hold, we're gettin' outta here!"

"Wha-." Leche wrapped her hands around Karato's waist. He reflexively wrapped his around her too before they were suddenly airborne and flying away from the city with the other flying people covering their exodus. One of which seemed to be Param in addition to the flying Kaidon.

Just what was happening here? Had he entered some alternate reality?

"How can you-."

"Fly? Everyt'in' will be explained where it's safer," Leche said.

Could anything really be explained? It didn't seem that was possible anymore.


	9. The Zeta Force

**This chapter was brought to you by ShadowMajin and Mysterious Prophetess.**

...

 _Previously on TBLB_

 _Jade City has fallen at the hands of the Red Ribbon Army's Alter-Humans. Karato awoke to find himself the victim of a mad scientist's plot and that not only could Leche perform the same feats as Gero's alter-humans, but that his older siblings could as well. What had happened while he was sleeping? Would their answers make things better or worse. Find out in the next chapter of TBLB ._

Chapter 9: The Zeta Force

It felt like Leche had been carrying Karato for hours.

"Are we there yet?"

"Ask me ag'n, an' I'll drop yah," Leche drawled, a hint of annoyance in her tone. "Mage, have yah heard from the Radish and Onion?"

"Tey're cle-ah. T' Alta-Hu'mans are falln' back ferr now," Leche's sister said from her position just ahead of them.

 _How had she-oh_. _Ear piece_. Karato heard a high-pitched whooshing sound as Kaidon and Param joined Leche and Mage's part of their flying formation.

"Hey there, baby bro! Long time no see!" Kaidon greeted.

"How—?."

"When we've landed. Trying to explain all this while flying is not a good idea," Param said, silencing him.

"I hope this is worth the build up," Karato grumbled to himself. He was about to cross his arms to complete the sullen pose, but forgot he was hanging on to Leche and end up tickling her a little, which made her squirm and nearly lose her grip.

"Knock t'at off!" Leche yelled. Karato felt his face burning from embarrassment. He didn't utter a word for the rest of the trip.

— —

They landed in the middle of a clearing. Leche set Karato down first before she landed next to him, straightening her clothing out.

"Baby brother! Catch!" Karato turned and barely caught both the Power Pole and his backpack.

"Where did you get these?" he asked with surprise.

"When you were cut off in that phone call, I wanted to fly out there immediately to get you. Kaidon talked me down and instead we called the shelter. They confirmed you'd been taken during the first Alter-Human assault. Cameras showed a real nerdy guy tranqing you," Param explained, "We arrived the next day and they gave us your stuff."

 _Flashback_

 _Six Days Previous_

"Can't you tell us anything else?" Param asked. Kaidon strapped the Power Pole to his back before slinging the backpack on top.

"I'm sorry miss. All I know was he would call you and your brother daily. I've already told you all I could about the kidnapping and what our cameras saw," the man said. Kaidon and Param exchanged looks before leaving.

"He can't have been taken by that Car Murderer! Karato's not a threat!" Kaidon said kicking a pebble and sending it flying over a nearby bus.

"Control, Kai, control," Param said placing a hand on his shoulder. Kaidon took a deep calming breath. "Besides, his minions are all muscle bound morons."

"His ki signal is too faint. I knew we should have drilled him harder!" Kaidon grumbled.

"Once he was old enough to choose, he chose to stop training. Making him do it would have only made him hate us." Param sighed and looked around. "We need to figure out where he was before the shelter and maybe anyone he would have contacted."

"Way ahead of you, Sis!" Param looked over to see Kaidon was rummaging through Karato's bag.

 _Come to think of it, did his backpack look like that?_ Kaidon pulled out what looked like-jackpot! It was a field journal! Param plucked it out of Kaidon's hand and flipped through it. Finding the last entry, she began working backwards, greedily reading her little brother's handwriting. It was because of this that one of the passages caught her attention.

"The Legendary Power Pole!" she exclaimed.

"What, this?" Kaidon said jabbing a thumb at the staff slung across his back.

"It says here he found it in a cave guarded by a cult. It has to be the real deal. I wonder how it got into a cave though?" Param shook her head and flipped ahead. Her face fell in disbelief, "He proved Great-Granduncle Quinoa's crazy theory."

"What, that the Monkey Gods were ancient aliens?" Kaidon asked.

"Exactly that," Param said, "But we now have a lead. This Dr. Vegeta Briefs, the person who conducted the analysis, might have a lead on what happened to our baby brother."

— —

Briefs' Residence

Param and Kaidon ran at super speed across town to arrive at the home address of the Dr. Briefs they found in the phone book. The moment they reached the door, Param pounded her fist on it, not bothering to stop until a bluenette woman answered the door.

"Will you stop banging on-OH!" The woman covered her mouth, "You look like-are you related to Karato?"

"He's our baby brother. He's missing," Kaidon said.

"What? Come in! Come in! I'm Bloom." The bluenette ushered them inside, speaking a mile a minute. "I was one of his professors at the university. Pretty bright guy, that brother of yours." They followed the blue haired young woman through her large house, the twins unable to stop gawking at their surroundings right until they arrived in a spacious kitchen. Apparently she was used to being a host as she quickly prepared glasses of tea for them in a flurry of movement.

Once they were settled, Bloom asked, "What happened?"

"That's something we'd hoped you or Vegeta Briefs would know. I presume that's your brother?" Param answered.

"Yeah, but he lives at his lab, literally," Bloom said. "I mean I do keep a room for him here, but he'd rather use that cot in his office and the locker room showers."

"Would he be able to develop something to track down any…unique DNA traces so we could find him?" Param pressed.

"Not exactly. I suppose we could ask-"

Before Bloom could finish, a violent tremor suddenly shook the house. The blue-haired woman cried out in shock and fear, her hands shooting out to brace herself against the kitchen counter.

In comparison, Param and Kaidon dashed towards the front door and outside, just in time to see it was another wave of Alter-Humans.

"Hey! Don't leave me behind!" Bloom yelled as she skidded a halt behind them. The twins looked back at her and then at each other as if silently communicating. Kaidon nodded before he tossed Karato's bag to Bloom, who barely caught it.

"Please take care of that. We'll handle this." With that the Son Twins took to the sky and began to repel the Alter-Humans.

The bluenette stared as the two shrank until they were tiny dots in the sky, at least until they ran into the wave of Alter-Humans. Her eyes widened as she saw visible shockwaves blast out, thunderous cracks echoing through the air. Flashes of light followed soon after as energy beams were fired in any and all directions.

 _Wow, they really kick ass._ Bloom let out an "Eeep!" before darting back into her house for cover, an energy blast hitting a little too close to home as it exploded in her front yard. Cautiously, she peaked out the doorway, eyeing the smoke rising from the freshly-made crater.

 _They're like the main characters from that fighting anime Veggie used to love._

It took a while, and Bloom wondered if it would ever end, but Param and Kaidon sent the enemy forces running. She wasn't sure if it was due to how kickass they were or if it was by the skin of their teeth, but she was grateful either way. They landed in the back yard and Bloom rushed out.

"That was amazing! How are you able to do that? Can Karato do it? Was he holding out on us?" Bloom exploded with questions, not even pausing for breath.

"No, he can't. We're students of the ancient Ki Arts, which predate even the Lost Era by a couple hundred years." Param dusted herself off as if she had dirtied herself from cleaning a house rather than a fight; at least that was the impression she gave before her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed.

"Param, always, uses, too, much, energy, in fights," Kaidon said in between pants, leaning forward with his hands pressed into his knees.

"Why didn't she seem winded?" Bloom asked. Kaidon shrugged weakly before he flopped down next to Param's unconscious form. It took ten minutes for his breathing to settle enough and Param to be revived.

"Ki Arts?" Bloom prompted.

"Everyone has ki within them; however you have to train both body and mind to properly harness it. Unless you're an Alter-Human, then you cheat your way to power," Kaidon answered, his breathing beginning to calm down.

"Well, don't you sort of cheat too?" Bloom pointed out. The Son Twins looked at her.

"Your ancestor wasn't human. He, like my ancestor, was from an alien species that, if Veggie's technobabble is correct, is naturally able to harness energy without anywhere near as much training," Bloom said, "not that you didn't work hard, but you have an edge no one else really does!"

"So, shall we go speak with your brother?" Param stood up shakily.

"Yeah, but we're taking my car. I insist," Bloom said.

— —

Briefs's Laboratory

"So, you're Karato's older siblings," Vegeta said looking at the pair. "You look an awful lot like one of your ancestors. Here." Vegeta went to the computer console and pulled up a video marked R1. In it there was grainy footage of a long-haired man versus someone who looked remarkably like Karato. The others crowded around.

"I'll be damned, we _do_ look like that guy!" Kaidon exclaimed.

"He's an ancestor?" Param questioned.

"There's limited data, but he's your direct ancestor's older brother," Vegeta said, pointing to the Karato double.

"An atavism?" Param mused. Vegeta did a double take.

"What was your field of study?" Vegeta asked.

"Oh, I never really went to a formal school, but our Aunt Wheta believed that we should study or we'd be bums. So, I had more theoretical textbooks shoved down my throat than most Ph.D. students. I took to Genetics fairly well and if there'd been money, I might have pursued it," Param said. "Kaidon, however is dumb as a brick and barely managed to learn high school level stuff before Aunt Wheta gave up and moulded Karato into a scholar. Karato was the only one of us who really liked studying, so any money we got from tournaments, that we didn't need for our place once we were on our own, we saved so we could send Karato to school."

"If you ever want a letter of recommendation to get into a school, I'd be happy to help," Vegeta offered.

"Any news?" Leche stuck her head in.

"Little Leche Galaxy!" Kaidon said. Leche stared at the young man before she groaned, planting her palm on her face.

"You know these two?" Vegeta asked, looking between the two.

"What are ya- _you_ doin'- _doing_ here?" Leche demanded, poorly trying to keep her accent in check.

"Why are you fighting your accent? It's adorable!" Param exclaimed.

"How do you-."

"Know them? Kaidon and Param run with the same crowd as my sisters do," Leche said slowly, continuing to fight off her drawl. A munching sound made everyone turn to see Bloom in another part of the room, munching on a large bowl of popcorn.

"What? I was hungry!" Bloom said after she swallowed.

"So, this is where you ended up? It's very nice," Param said, "Now, about our baby brother. The guy at the shelter mentioned a nerdy-looking guy is the one who grabbed him."

"Nerdy?" Vegeta said before his eyes widened, "Bloom! Contact your-."

"Already on it!" In the blink of an eye, Bloom had her phone pressed to her ear. "Yeah. Hi Yacha. No. Not even if you were the last male in the universe. I need a simple job this time. Get me the surveillance footage from anywhere near the Refugee Shelter from yesterday at-" She paused as she looked to the others. "What time?"

"Three PM," Param said.

"Three PM. Same desktop as last time. Don't give it a lame title this time, we have company. Yes. One is a girl. No, I will not give her your number. She could break you in two. Bye." Bloom pressed the "end call" button with a disgusted snort.

"It's already on my desktop," Vegeta said, "And it's named "boring label because reasons." I guess he really didn't like being told he couldn't give it a more "awesome" label."

"Whatever, just open it." Bloom had crossed the room to loom over Vegeta's computer with the others.

The quality was grainy at best but, well, it didn't need to be any better than what it was, especially once they saw who was on the screen.

"Speed." Leche spat as if his very name were a curse upon humanity.

"Who?" Kaidon asked, taken back by the venom in the young woman's voice.

"He was my partner in research but he crossed a line about six days ago and we parted ways," Vegeta explained.

"Well, this ass has my baby brother, so maybe you should un-part ways and find out what he's up to and where he's keeping Karato!" Kaidon demanded heatedly.

That got Leche's attention, the woman tearing her eyes away from the screen to look at the young man. "You're Karato's older siblings?"

"Yeah. Couldn't you see the family resemblance? I mean it's not as freaky close as you, Ques, Mage, and Feta's near clone-ish-ness but we still look a lot alike!" Kaidon sniffed. Param rubbed the bridge of her nose before she slapped Kaidon across the back of his head.

"Pardon my brother. He is a moron," Param said, "although, he has a point."

"I haven' ezackly seen t'two of yah in five years!" Leche said, giving up on fighting her accent.

"Fair point," Kaidon said as he rubbed his head. "Did you have to hit so hard?"

"You wouldn't learn anything if I didn't." Param looked at Vegeta. "Can you find out where this Speed is?"

"I can try. I doubt Yacha would help us anymore today. It takes about four days for his delicate feelings to recover after a really brutal rejection from Bloom," Vegeta answered.

"I'll try talking to my buddies at the university level. Speed was always greedy. He'd have tried to get a grant or something," Bloom said before she pulled out her phone and exited the room.

 _End Flashback_

— —

"So, in the end we ended up having to wait the four days it took for Yacha to get over himself and then it took another one for him to get back to us which brings us up to the present." Param placed her hands on her hips.

"How did you learn to do all this?" Karato asked.

"That's somewhat of a longer story, so let me sum up. Once upon a time, there were three orphans being raised by their maiden aunty living in the Fry Pan Mountains. One summer, the older children, a set of boy and girl twins, went exploring for a new fishing spot and met an old pervert. He claimed to be the legendary Turtle Hermit. The twins demanded proof. He gave it to them and they begged him to teach them. After a few moments of consideration, he agreed and he taught them Ki arts and how to fly. However, they were sworn to secrecy. They met his other students of this era and the rest was history. The end. " Param ran her fingers through her mane of spikes.

"So, you've been keeping this from me since just after Mom and Dad died," Karato questioned slowly.

"Yes. You heard her, we were sworn to secrecy," Kaidon said, "Haven't you ever kept something from someone to keep them from getting hurt?" Karato's thoughts immediately flashed to the _real_ culprits behind the car murder and nodded.

"So, who are the rest of these guys?" Karato asked.

"The Zeta Force. The Mightiest practitioners of the Ki Arts left on Planet Earth." A tall bald man walked forwards with a tablet in his arms. Leche's stolen flash drive was plugged into the side.

"Dr. Shin?" Karato said incredulously.

"Mr. Son."

"Tien, explain, now!" Bloom said. It was only then that Karato spotted Bloom in the room, her brother in tow. Next to them were a pair of male and female twins, who like his siblings, were male and female doubles of one another. The girl had blonde hair and the boy hair black. Their eyes were the same blue.

"Like Kaidon said, we're the Zeta Force, lady. I'm Ches. That's my twin sister Hacchi." the newly identified Ches said. There were others who were various shapes and sizes. A good mix of male and female. Including two women who Karato assumed were Leche's other two sisters based on Kaidon's comment. Well Param's _relaying_ of Kaidon's comment. Knowing his older brother, it was something he'd say.

 _They really are clone-like in how alike they look!_

"Why haven't you all gone after Gero?" Bloom demanded.

"We're not strong enough to stop him," Param admitted, "He's out of our league and because he's some sort of robotic life form, we can't even gauge how much stronger. No human has a chance."

"We were without an option," Dr. Shin said.

"What do you mean ' _were_?'" Vegeta pressed.

"While Param filled Karato in on recent events, Leche handed me this interesting flash drive and I have been analyzing it, but I need someone with knowledge of this subject to make heads or tails of it," Dr. Shin said. Vegeta and Leche crowded around it. Leche was twirling her hair before she suddenly paused. She and Vegeta exchanged looks and then stared at Karato. Leche messed with her hair again. She stopped, tugged on a lock before she slapped herself on the face.

"Hacchi, yer compact!" Leche said. The blonde shrugged and tossed it to her before she opened it and held it out to Karato.

"Look." Karato was confused until he looked in it and _-gahh!_ The compact nearly had a dirt nap were it not for the lightning fast Leche who plucked it out of the air.

His hair it-it-it-gah! His originally just messy slightly spiky hair had somehow gotten longer and even spikier in the week he was out. In fact, they looked just like-.

"Why do I have the same hair as my ancestor?" Karato asked.

"Speed never let go of his idea of altering one of us Saiyan descendants. You were the easiest target," Vegeta said.

"He used a sorta retro-virus t'do it. It's overwrittin' yer human DNA. Yer hair is a minor trait t'at changed first. Other stuff will change latah," Leche said before she tossed the compact back to Hacchi.

"What?" Karato, needless to say, was confused. Vegeta sighed before he studied the screen for a few moments more and rubbed his temples with his index fingers.

"If this data is correct, and it was time stamped about two hours before Leche sprung you in the final evacuation of Jade City, your current make up is 75% human and 25% Saiyan and increasing. Should this rate of change keep up, your human DNA will be completely overwritten within a month max."

…

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories like this one. We're an open group, meaning that everyone is welcome to apply to join on our forums. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to better their writing skills or be apart of a writing community.**


	10. Transition

**This chapter was brought to you by ShadowMajin and Mysterious Prophetess.**

* * *

 _Previously on TBLB, Karato found out his siblings had learned how to use powers like the alter humans on their own and that there was a whole group of people who could do it too, including Leche. Then he found out that Speed had violated his rights as a human by altering him against his will and then learned his humanity was being rapidly erased. How will this play out? Find out in the next chapter of TBLB!_

Chapter 10: Transition

Karato clenched his fists so hard his nails broke skin and blood began to leap out, dripping from his clenched hands.

"How could he do that?! I'm not someone's science experiment! I'm a human being, damn it!" he yelled. Leche placed a hand on his shoulder lightly,

"I don' blame ya for bein' mad. He ignored proper science and ethics to do this t'ya," she said softly.

"If I'd known about that, I think I'd have volunteered." Karato looked up at Kaidon as Param face palmed. "The idea of facing them makes me excited, and being able to get strong enough to face stronger and stronger opponents, ah that sounds amazing. I'm actually jealous of you right now, little bro!" Looks were exchanged before the rest of the Zeta Force took a huge step away from the Son siblings and Leche.

" ** _Are ya a utta blit'a'in moe-ran_**!" Leche yelled. Before she could charge forward one of her sisters had marched over and caught her, arms locking around the furious woman as she kicked and clawed at Kaidon. She was still yelling, but the sounds coming out were best rendered as, " ** _HAFABRAINCOM'PLE'LYAAHHHH!YAAFUCKINIJITT'IS-AHHH-ITAHHAAHAH_**!"

"Kaidon. Are you telling me that you're jealous of me being someone's fucking _science project_?" Karato growled in a low tone.

"Dude, you're not looking at the bigger picture—."

" _Bigger picture_ , Kaidon? I'm being turned into something inhuman and you're trying to tell me to 'look at the bigger picture' **whenever you're a fighting-obsessed moron who is too dense to see something everyone else can**!" Karato stormed off, the force of each step leaving indents in his wake.

Kaidon blinked owlishly before he noticed all the eyes in the room focused on him.

"What?" he asked. Param took a breath before she slapped the back of his head so hard that echoed around the clearing.

" _Pa-ram_!" he whined. Param kicked his ass, literally, before she followed the trail of footprint holes Karato had left behind.

* * *

Param saw that the trail of damage vanished after a while. She shrugged before she used her actual tracking skills to follow the trail he had left even after he stopped stomping like a four year old. Her brothers, she swore. She now suddenly understood why Aunt Wheta had so many gray hairs by the time she and Kaidon were sixteen. She heard something and looked up to see a massive boulder sitting in a second clearing and there was a set of feet dangling over the edge. This was a simply massive stone at least sixty feet high, and without being an expert rock climber, or a ki warrior there was no way up there. Yet, there sat someone. She leapt up from behind and saw it was Karato.

"Before, there was no way in hell that I could have gotten up here, now look!" he said smashing his fist into the rock. Param sat next to Karato and placed a hand on his head, running her fingers through his hair. Despite being spiky, it was still soft.

"There are times that I swear I got all the brains between the two of us, even though we weren't identical twins, with how his simplistic one-track mind can be when it comes to fighting," Param said.

"You got most of the common sense," Karato muttered.

"That I did." Param stopped her finger-combing and stood up offering her hand to Karato who took it. "Look around, baby brother. Sitting up here, isolated from the problems of the world, it would almost seem like nothing bad could happen, but shit is happening miles away as we speak. It's happening to bad people, like that fucker who did this to you, and shit happened to a good person like you. If I'm being honest here, it's probably a good thing that you were the one that had this happen to them."

Karato stared at her with disbelief.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because, you don't want power like most people do. If given the choice for this, you probably wouldn't see this as something you'd want, unlike that idiot twin of mine. If you did it at all, it'd be to help people." Param smiled at her brother who looked away.

"You're wrong. I did almost say yes to this back at the lab when Speed offered it. I just didn't think we should be doing what Gero did, changing people so that they're stronger. If Gero hadn't done that, I might have said yes. I might have just done it to be stronger than I am," Karato admitted clenching his fists again, "You're the real selfless one of the three of us, Param." Param laughed.

"Even I'm a little bit selfish too, Karato. Now, what do you say that we get off this rock and get somewhere that we can monitor you in case something goes wrong," Param said.

"Why say that?"

"Well, from the way Leche was frothing at the mouth, there's probably a lot that could go wrong during these changes," she explained.

"Right." Karato leapt off the boulder and landed with a crater. Param landed next to him gracefully, laughing as she did so.

"We're going to have to work on your control there, baby brother. The holes you made in the ground made it all the easier for me to follow you." Karato blushed and took a few steps before he screamed in pain. Knees buckling, he dropped to his knees, using his arms to brace himself against the ground. He dug his fingers into the dirt and grass, before he completely collapsed to the ground.

Param was immediately at her brother's side, wrapping her arms around his body before hefting him up, throwing him over her shoulder before she flew straight up and over to the first clearing. Her abrupt landing made the other members of the Zeta Force, plus the siblings Briefs jump.

"What happened?" Kaidon asked rushing over.

"Do you really think I know? You, Vegeta wasn't it? Think you can figure this out with little Leche?" Param said. Vegeta scoffed,

"This is my specialty." He took Karato's pulse, "It's been years since my residency, but his pulse is erratic and unless there's some way to stabilize him, he may not live long enough for me to figure out anything about his condition." Param looked over at Tien, who had also gotten closer to Param.

"Please tell me those healing tank things you guys were yammering about are up and running," she demanded.

"Healing tanks?" Vegeta said with a raised eyebrow.

"This way," Tien said motioning for her and Vegeta to follow him before they took off running.

"Do you have any equipment that can be used for blood analysis here too?" Vegeta asked.

"There should be, most of what we were restoring is ancient, but some of the machines are similar enough that we can guess at what they do," Tien explained.

"You're trusting a **guess**?" Vegeta looked at Param.

"If it saves Karato, I'd trust a million of them!" They stopped at a metal door carved into the ground, which Param stomped open.

"And she destroys another one," Tien sighed before he and Vegeta followed her down a tunnel, "Welcome to the actual head quarters of the Zeta Force, Dr. Briefs."

* * *

Vegeta was impressed by the level of advancement and yet simultaneous antiquated look the underground complex had to it. He stopped to admire some strange device that Bloom would probably be able to identify, and lost Param and Tien. He ran down the hallway glad there didn't appear to be any major forks and glanced into the open doors and found Param and Tien in a room filled with tanks. Tanks he recognized. Oh boy.

"My sister is going to murder all of you," he said, "She reported these missing from the West City site after only a day of finding them. She was so pissed."

"Surely she can't still be made about that," Tien said.

"She was so mad, she decided researching a Hellmouth sounded like a good idea and look where that got us!" Vegeta said.

"Would she forgive us if we told her we got them running?" Vegeta turned around to see it was one of the other twins in this place. It was the guy with black hair, Ches.

"Not really," Vegeta said. A "whooshing" sound made him turn back to the tanks. There was liquid filling it up. The way it flowed, it did not look like it was water.

"What is that stuff?" he inquired.

"We're not sure, exactly. All it needs is some basic proteins and water and whatever is in there programs it to become something else," Ches said, "So we use jello mix. Over in the next room, best we can tell, are machines that can scan blood and DNA. The data is too technical for most of us to read and Leche's still frothing at the mouth because of Kaidon's stupidity."

"I'll take a look, but only after I'm sure he's stable," Vegeta said pointing to Karato, "Also, you'd probably better get my sister in here. She might forgive you all if you beg and praise her."

"Is that what works for you?" Tien asked.

"Not unless I buy her at least ten pizzas." Vegeta studied the tank's side panels, finding screens with weird symbols but the readings on Karato's vitals were still in a form he understood. All signs stable. Phew! He poked at it a little bit more and jumped whenever it squawked at him.

"What are you trying to do?" Ches asked.

"I need to open it so I can get a blood sample from Karato to analyze," Vegeta said.

"Oh, press this button and then this one," Ches said, pressing what looked like random buttons.

"Don' ya need t'ese first?" Vegeta looked over his shoulder to see Leche had suddenly appeared next to him holding syringes and Tien was missing from the room. When had that happened?

"Calmed down now?" Vegeta asked before sticking the needle and his hand into the weird fluid. This was going to stain. Ugh. He found a vein and carefully withdrew the blood. He stepped clear of the tank, allowing it to close and shook some of the goop off.

"Let's see what's going on inside of you," Vegeta said staring at the sample.

* * *

Karato felt like he was—his eyes snapped open and he was in yet another tank, though this time the mask covered his whole face and didn't feel like it was strangling him. In front of the tank, though distorted a bit, were Param and Kaidon. Param pressed a button,

"Can you hear me? Nod if you can." Karato nodded.

"There's an ear piece that's part of your breathing mask, and a microphone out here, but we can't hear you," Param explained, "This is a "regen tank" that they dug up from a Lost Age site and have restored to working order. Best your friend Bloom can tell, this tank is as alien as our ancestor. The reason you're in this thing right now is—." Param pulled a piece of paper out of her back shorts pocket and cleared her throat, "and I quote Dr. Vegeta Briefs on this, 'Due to the virus accelerating its rate of genetic mutation and alteration, the stress on your body is being interpreted by your nerves as pain signals.' In other words, the virus is making you go Saiyan faster and it hurts like hell. For your own safety, you're being kept in this tank because it's one of the only ways we can ensure that any damage caused by your conversion is fixed." Karato wanted to argue, but he felt way too tired to even try to have a silent argument with his sister. Though, past experience had taught him that any type of argument with Param was just a waste of time; she always won.

"Oh, he's asleep." Param and Kaidon turned to see it was Vegeta Briefs who had just entered the room.

"We explained it exactly the same way you did," Param said waving her paper around, "though, I think I wrote something down wrong, but then I also made sure to give him the Kaidon proof version."

"Hey!" Kaidon protested.

"Thank you," Vegeta said.

"Have you looked at the blood samples?" Param asked.

"I have. This virus has no effect on a blood sample from the Galaxy siblings, but when tested against my or Bloom's samples, there was a definite reaction. If any of us Saiyan descended are not careful, you could be infected by this virus and end up being turned into a Saiyan too," Vegeta said.

"Do it," Param said.

" ** _What?_** "

"Infect Kaidon and I with this virus. As much as I love my baby brother, he's untrained. There is no reason for us to not do this whenever we are actually trained martial artists who can use this power to its fullest extent and take down that robotic would-be tyrant," Param explained.

"There's also the chance this will kill you! We're lucky that your brother isn't dead!" Vegeta shot back gesturing at Karato's unconscious form.

"I don't care. This is the world we're talking about. My life doesn't matter," Param responded.

Vegeta stared at her incredulously before turning his sights onto Kaidon. "What about you, are you on board with possibly dying for a **_power-up_**!"

"Not exactly, but I was being honest that day I pissed off Karato. I would love to be stronger so I can fight stronger and stronger opponents," Kaidon said.

"Do it, or we will," Param said.

"Please understand the only reason I'm even helping you at all is so I can monitor you properly," Vegeta said, "If you infect yourselves then I'll have no data and you'll definitely end up dead." Vegeta carefully pulled up the sample of Karato's blood and withdrew a little. He sliced each sibling's finger and put a drop of the blood in the wound before sealing it shut with bandages.

"You will check in with me every damn day, understand?" he ordered.

"Understood."

* * *

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories like this one. We're an open group, meaning that everyone is welcome to apply to join on our forums. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to better their writing skills or be apart of a writing community.**


	11. Only Saiyan

_Previously on TBLB: Karato has collapsed from the strain of his changing body and Param and Kaidon desire the power of being a saiyan for themselves to save the world. What will happen? Find out on TBLB._

 **Chapter 11: Only Saiyan.**

Vegeta was studying the blood samples given to him by the Son Twins, as part of his requirement for their infection.

" _Why didn't you tell me these machines were stolen from my site in the first place_!"

Vegeta jumped and cursed. Something had bitten into his fingers. Glass. He was bleeding. _Great_. Wait, not good! Quickly, he hurried to a nearby sink, turned on the faucet and shoved his hand underneath the running water. He prayed he hadn't just been infected.

"Are yah ok?" He looked up to see Leche in the room. He shook his head.

She looked questioningly at him before she noticed the bloody mess and swore.

"I warn't 'em abou' not tellin' her abou' where t'ose machines came from," Leche grumbled as she gathered a syringe and needle. She connected them together before she stuck it into Vegeta's arm, withdrawing blood. She placed the sample in the hematology analyzer after injecting the proper reagents.

"I suppose I'll be takin' ovah t'ah blood samples of t'a mor-an twins if t'is positive?" Leche suggested.

"I can't trust anyone else with it," Vegeta said, then paused, "Don't tell my sister about this."

"What and risk mah-self later?" Leche said.

"You're not in danger. Your DNA is saiyan gene free."

Leche gave him a look before rolling her eyes. "Fine. Karato's stable. Accordin' tah t'machines he can be taken out," she said.

Vegeta nodded, "I'll take care of it. Yah'd bettah get in one of 'em if t'is turns out positive."

She looked at the results the surprisingly-fast machine spat out. "It's positive."

Vegeta's face went ashen. "I know you can do it," Vegeta said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I can monitor 'em but I can't do any'tin' to save 'em," Leche said.

Vegeta stared at her. "I'll do mah best."

"That's all we can do."

...

Karato opened his eyes. He was relieved to see that he wasn't in a tank or in any pain, though he was dizzy and _**starving**_. He hadn't felt this hungry even whenever he was on his cross country trek trying to get to civilization that psycho robot megalomaniac Gero hadn't conquered. He needed to get out of the bed if he wanted food. Karato pushed back the covers and was pleased to see a plain set of pajamas. Almost looked like one of his— _of course_! His brother and sister could fly and chances are they went and got them.

He took a step and stumbled. His balance was way off for some reason. Maybe it was because he'd been out for … wait, he had no idea how long he'd been out. Probably a while because of how _hungry_ he was. He hoped this wouldn't end up like that show, the _Creeping Zombies_. Especially since he was too much like Flenn!

Something brushed against his back. He froze. Turning his head around, Karato caught sight of some furry, brown thing. It was long and thin, like some kind of cord or rope.

 _What is that doing there?_ Reaching to it, he grabbed it and all sorts of feelings went off in his head. He ... he felt that. He could feel his fingers touching it through ... well, it! Looking around, Karato soon spotted a mirror and moved in front of it with his back facing it.

He froze the moment he saw his reflexion—what the _hell_! It was part of him. In the same way a person is usually aware of a limb, he was aware of whatever the _hell_ that was. Karato unconsciously squeezed his hand tightly, which sent an indescribable amount of pain shooting up his backside and spine.

Footsteps thundered down the hall. Karato let go of the ... well, the monkey tail and looked towards the door as Leche, Param, and Kaidon entered.

"HA! Didn't see that coming!" Kaidon said, jabbing a finger at Leche.

Leche rolled her eyes before she and Param slapped the back of Kaidon's head in tandem. "Fascinatin', t'is _is_ a strange deveh-op-men' to be sure," said Leche as she walked closer to Karato.

"What's that mean?"

"Yah didn' have a tail when we took yah outta t'tank," Leche said, grabbing it. Her grip was too strong. Karato screamed and slumped forward.

"Whah!" Leche let the tail go.

Suddenly, Karato could move again.

"T'at's a terrible weakness t'have. Should probably remove it," said Leche.

"Whoa, whoa! Easy there with the amputation stuff," Karato said, backing away from Leche and keeping his tail behind himself. Hey, he was getting better at controlling that thing. "Do we know if this is a random mutation, or a Saiyan thing?"

"Well if t'ese two _geniuses_ sprout 'em, t'en we'll know, won' we?" Leche said.

"What did she mean by that?" Karato demanded. Param and Kaidon didn't quite look him in the eye. It clicked. "You _didn't._ "

"It was the only way! We don't have time to wait for you to train. You've already been out over a week already!" Param said.

"Week an' a half," Leche interjected.

"You two could _die_ from this. I nearly _died_ from this! Didn't I?" Karato looked at Leche who nodded.

"You can yell at us when it's over, baby brother. For now, we have some training to do," Kaidon said. Without waiting to hear more protest, he and Param left the room.

"Against Dr. Briefs's ordahs, t'ey've been trainin' hard core," Leche said.

"Where's Dr. Briefs?" Karato asked, a frown on his face as he stared at the doorway his siblings had disappeared through.

Leche took a calming breath and composed herself. "He got infected by accident," she said, having managed to fight off her accent for a whole sentence.

"Will he—."

"Ah don' know!" Leche snapped.

Karato drew back in surprise. Leche looked so lost.

"Ah don' know an' he coul beh dyin' an ah don know enouf t' save mah friend!" Leche shook herself and looked at Karato. "T'ose two mighta given up on trainin' yah, but _I_ haven't!" Leche said, "We don' have much time, but we need ta make nah most of it. Yah'd betta be ready for it."

Karato gulped but sensed that they both needed this, though, he had a feeling she would be kicking his ass for most of it.

...

Karato squared off against Leche in the boulder clearing.

Leche held a hand forward and beckoned him to attack. He blurred. Unleashed a flurry of attacks that forced the shorter woman back.

She kicked him and sent him backwards. Just a bit, but he recovered quickly. He gathered a glowing blue blast in his right hand and threw it at her. Quickly, she deflected with one of her own. The blast went up and detonated harmlessly.

She held up a hand and bowed to him, prompting him to bow back in turn.

"Much bettah and yah're already usin' ki, how is _t'at_ fair? Anyway, let's start back up afta lunch. I need tah check the blood samples and Vegeta—."

There was a startled shriek.

Leche bolted from the clearing, arriving to see Kaidon and Param on the ground. "Back away!" Leche ordered.

Of the conscious Zeta Force members, allies in the case of Bloom, only Leche had any medical training. Though, Leche's was EMT training.

She checked them for a pulse, responses, and a few other things that Karato didn't know. He had no clue what she was doing or why.

"Get 'em to the tanks now!" she yelled. The others obeyed instantly.

"What's—."

"T'eir pulses are ehrratic and t'ey're un-re-ponsive," Leche announced.

With a flurried rush, the Zeta Force had retreated to their base, leaving Karato outside alone. The silence that followed was eerie and Karato couldn't decide what to do next: run after his older siblings or just stay out of the way. As pissed off as he was at Param and Kaidon due their stupidity, they were still his siblings and he still loved them.

He shook his head. Why was he even thinking this was a tough choice; he was going to go inside and see that they were ok. They'd do the same for him. Probably already had, come to think of it. Plan in mind, he started off towards the doors of the Zeta Force Base.

Of course, that was when the first alter-human arrived. Dr. Gero and his armies had found the Zeta Force. Wasn't that just fan- _fricken_ -tastic!

Karato was _**so**_ not ready for this kind of thing, but ready or not, there they came.

An alarm was set off somewhere behind him; Leche and the other Zeta Force Fighters, including her nearly identical sisters arrived outside. Incidentally, all four of the Galaxy sisters were carrying spears. There were only a few other armed Zeta Force warriors.

Leche looked up at the sky. "Ah, F—."

"Language!" Ques, Mage, and Feta snapped at their baby sister in unison cutting her swear off short.

"You choose _now_ to censor her?" Ches asked: his incredulity rolling off every word.

Hacchi rolled her eyes as she stood next to her twin. "Let's hope Leche's kicking your ass everyday for a week helps make up for the fact your older siblings are out," Hacchi's tone implied she didn't think this was so.

Dr. Gero in all his mismatched glory floated above them, coming to a halt in front of the rest of his floating horde. His eyes alighted on the twins that were present; his anger was evident on his misshapen face. There was a clear sense of recognition to be read in that twisted visage that had been further twisted by his rage.

"Y-y-you **dare** to show your faces after your-your-your-" _ **CLUNK**_ "-treachery 17 and 18?" Ches and Hacchi exchange bemused looks before looking back at Dr. Gero.

"You've mistaken us for our _ancestors_ ," Ches said.

"But we'd be happy to kill you." Hacchi slid into a fighting stance, her face impassive, but her eyes told a different story: defiance.

Dr. Gero narrowed his more humanoid eye. "Well, are you just going to float there? Eliminate them!"

The alter-humans surged forwards overwhelming the Zeta Force for a few moments. Karato lost sight of Leche as two goons attacked him.

...

" _Dodge!" Leche kicked him, sent him flying. He slammed into the boulder in the clearing and painfully peeled himself off the side. "If yah wanna to suh-vive a real fight, yah have t'learn to dodge—What did I say abou' t'at weakness hangin' out?"_

" _That if you saw it you'd pull it?" Karato replied, "But I can't balance without—it." He was at her mercy again._

" _We're gonna do t'is again 'til yah learn how t'dodge an' keep t'at tail wrapped round yahr waist."_

...

Karato ducked down, dodging the punch aimed at his head. In an instant, he shot his leg out, swept the legs from under his attacker, and finished by pivoting on his ground foot, spinning around before lashing out and kicking him away.

The blow sent his foe flying into another person, knocking him to the ground. Unfortunately, that person was on his side: Dr. Shin. _Oops_. "Sorry!"

...

"Watch what you're doing next time!" Dr. Shin yelled irritably. He shoved the body off of him and got up. Of course, that had to be the time he found himself surrounded by these alter-humans. Keeping light on his feet, he slowly turned around to make sure he knew where these enemies were. That was until he felt another back pressed against his.

Tilting his head to the side, he observed another Zeta Force member, Jirobe.

She had her sword out, something he was rather glad to see.

That was when all the alter-humans charged at them.

Jirobe lashed out with her sword, the sound of metal slicing through metal reaching his ear.

He threw his arms up, blocking the first couple of blows aimed at his head. His face grimaced from the surprising power behind them.

Unfortunately, that's when he realized there was a dull, throbbing pain in his side, which was slowing down his movement. Because of this, a solid punch landed against his face, snapping his head to the side. Another hit, which suspiciously felt like the bottom of a boot, collided with his chest and sent him careening to the ground, skidding over it until he came to a stop.

With a curse passing through his lips, Dr. Shin slowly pushed himself up, one arm clutching at his side. The hit he'd taken _after_ that goon had been sent flying _into_ him had done some damage, more than he'd realized. He was moving slower, he could feel it with every move he made, but there was no time to stop. Their lives and humanity's fate rested on this fight. He could take a little pain. He _had_ no choice.

Dr. Shin would chew the sloppy kid out later. It was a good thing Son was a far better scholar than a fighter or he'd have been _really_ pissed off at this moment. No time to dwell on that, he had the fight of his life to focus on. No, this was the fight for life as _everyone_ knew it.

...

Leche was fighting off three alter-humans at once. They were almost too much for her, but she had better training, and that was probably the only reason she was still alive. That and her spear. Enhanced humans or not, the blade on the head of her spear was made from a recovered piece of metal from the Lost Age; it sliced right through their toughened skin like butter.

This kept them back enough to give Leche some breathing room, but otherwise they were pelting her with sloppily executed ki-blasts which she was forced to continually block by twirling her spear. It was starting to piss her off at how these sloppy goons were pushing her to her limits and she was actually one of the strongest Zeta Force warriors!

"Lous'y rot'en cheatin' scum," she hissed as she forced the trio she was fighting back a few more paces. She didn't get a chance to capitalize on her opening because the bombardment continued to force her to be on the defense. Leche _**hated**_ to be on defense.

...

 _Leche stood across from Karato with a pair of regular bo staves._

" _Until yah learn t'use a propah staff, magical weap'ns are off limits," she tossed him a staff._

 _He barely caught it,_ _after fumbling with it a few times_ _. He gave it a twirl and Leche looked slightly impressed, for a moment. Then she twirled her staff around too, but she did twice the twirls, tossed it in the air and caught it aiming it at Karato's face._

" _Yah're okay. I'm bettah," she said, "Don' feel too bad: I've been trainin' wit' a spear since I was lit'le. Let's begin."_

...

Karato drew the power pole from its holster on his back. He began to use it against enemies after seeing Mage send a goon flying with her spear. He copied the move and sent several of the alter-humans flying. Neat!

Karato spun through at least four more goons until he felt a prickle on his neck; he barely avoided a large laser blast that had slammed into the ground where he'd just been standing. The charred remains of a couple not-so-lucky goons demonstrated just how deadly the blast had been. _Holy shit._

Karato looked up and gulped. Dr. Gero was looking down at him malevolently. _Oh shit_. He also spied Hacchi and Ches down for the count. They weren't moving. _**Oh shit**_. This was _**way**_ above his level.

...

" _If yah shoul' evah find yahrself in over yah head, and chances are yah_ _will_ _, the best skill yah can master is defending yah_ _r_ _self until yah can get an openin' t'escape."_

" _My best plan is to run?" Karato_ _didn't like the way that sounded at all. Leche fixed him a look that seemed to say "why did I take this teaching job."_

" _Live t'fight anotha day. Senseless martyrdom is pointless."_ _Leche slid into a different stance than what Karato was used to seeing her use in their short, and very harsh fighting crash course_ _. "I'm gonna come at yah with everythin' I got. Block 'til yah find an openin' t'get away from me. Understand?" Leche surged forwards and began to go at him, both_ _fists_ _blazing_ _with attacks that he could barely detect, let alone block_ _._

 _Karato ended up in the boulder, again. She pulled him out of his new dent and tossed him back to his starting position._

" _Again."_

...

Karato had to use everything he had to barely block Dr. Gero's attacks. The madman — err, _cyborg_ — was so relentless that he was having trouble keeping up. The punches just kept coming, it was almost as if he was facing twenty men and not a single adversary. The hits seemed to come from everywhere!

"I'm disanoi-poi-pointed. You're not even close to being a threat even with your increase in potency of Saiyain DNA-A-A," Dr. Gero said, as he continued to pummel Karato. Being a machine and not a man, he also wasn't tiring.

Karato slipped and he was wide open for a blast from Dr. Gero's newly recharged laser attack. Karato was too slow in raising his guard and it looked like the end for him.

He closed his eyes, only to hear a grunt and a strange modulated shout. He opened his eyes and the blast had been deflected into a batch of Dr. Gero's men and nearly the Zeta Force fighters, who barely dodged backwards in time.

The looks of disbelief on their faces were shared by the surviving goons and Dr. Gero himself. All Karato could see of his rescuer was green and violet.

Karato was saved, but who the heck was this guy?

...


	12. I'm Here to Help You

**This chapter is brought to you by Mysterious Prophetess and ShadowMajin**

 _Previously on TBLB: Karato slipped and he was wide open for a blast from Dr. Gero's newly recharged laser attack. Karato was too slow in raising his guard and it looked like the end for him. He closed his eyes, only to hear a grunt and a strange modulated shout. He opened his eyes and the blast had been deflected into a batch of Dr. Gero's men. Karato was saved, but who the heck was this guy?_

 **Chapter 12: I'm Here to Help You**

The first thing Karato noticed about his savior was that he was green. Like not "green around the gills," but actually _green_. The second thing was the fact he was wearing a purple gi. If Param had been conscious, he knew she'd be dragging the guy's fashion choices. Third, this guy had pointy ears and antennae. In short, the guy looked alien.

It was at that moment Karato heard an incoming blast screaming through the air towards them. Without missing a beat, the guy phased out of sight in front of the youth, reappearing between him and the blast. With an arm crossed in front of his chest, the green man swung his hand out, swatting the blast away and right back at the alter-human from which it had come. Then the warrior set its sights on Gero.

"Stay still," Karato finally noticed that he was being tended to by another newcomer. He looked just like the other guy, but smaller.

"Who are you people?" Karato asked bewilderedly.

"I'm happy you asked 'who' and not 'what,'" the guy said. Karato assumed it was a guy: it had a male voice.

"That would be my second question." Karato rubbed the back of his neck before he remembered Noot's request.

"I'm Noot. The one fighting is Piccolo." Piccolo? _That great warrior was named_ _ **Piccolo**_ _?_ Karato opened his mouth.

"I'll explain more later, but right now, I think there are more… _pressing_ matters," Noot said, holding up a clawed green hand. Karato nodded, "You're good to go."

"I'll hold you to that promise," he said before he shot up into the air, realizing a moment later just how much easier he had done that. He actually felt amazing. Ok, not amazing but he didn't feel like he'd gone twenty rounds with a truck anymore.

—

It was never a good idea to look away from an opponent in the middle of a fight. Leche almost made that fatal mistake when she found herself looking up to the sky. Then again, it wasn't everyday one saw flying green men.

Fortunately for her, her sister, Feta, pressed her back up against hers, causing her to jerk her head back down in time to see an alter-human charging at her. Feeling her sister hook one of her arms around hers, Leche had to fight back the urge to smirk.

With practiced ease, the two warriors swung themselves around, each spinning to their respective left. Swinging a leg up, their timing was perfect as they landed kicks to the side of their charging foes' heads. It was a little flamboyant, but it was effective regardless. After all, they did like to call it "The Wheel of Death."

—

Despite his reputation, Gero seemed to almost have the upper hand on Piccolo. It was because of this that Karato had no qualms with ramming into the man with his shoulder, sending him flying away from the alien.

"I should have done this sooner," Piccolo grumbled.

"Done what?" Karato asked before he was forced to block an attack. Gero had recovered quickly and lashed back at him with a punch to his head. _Huh. Doesn't hurt as much as before._

"Nothing. Dodge!" Karato barely rolled out of the way as Gero's fist and forearm detached and rocketed towards him. That was new.

"You're looking rather we-we-weak Piccolo," Gero remarked.

"You're looking pretty good for a dead guy." Piccolo fired a ki blast at Gero. The green man let out a snarl of frustration when the scrap-bot merely blocked the attack, looking no worse for wear. Seeing an opening, Karato charged towards the elderly man, leaping up at the last second and kicking out with his legs, landing a dropkick to Gero's face. It worked a little as the man stumbled back a step.

"Must be nice to have a Zenkai," Piccolo said.

"A zen what?" Karato asked before he was sent soaring into the ground below, courtesy of a blast slamming into and exploding all over him.

"I do not understand how that d-d-d—"— _ **thunk**_ —"—diluted descendant of Goku gained so much power," Gero said in aggravation.

Piccolo raised an eye-ridge _._ Raising his hands up, the back of one pressed against the palm of the other, Piccolo charged a ki attack before thrusting both arms in front of him, shouting, "Masenko Ha!" Unfortunately, Gero still managed to deflect the blast, clasping his hands together and leaning to a side before swinging his arms in time to hit the beam away.

However, this was another opening and Karato took advantage of it again. Cupping his arms to a side, he quickly charged his ki. "Ka-me-ha-me-Ha!" he shouted before thrusting his arms in front of him and firing his powerful blue beam. The blast collided with Gero, sending him shooting up into the atmosphere. Piccolo whipped his head towards the youth, eyes wide with amazement.

Karato ignored the look mostly. He had had doubts of it working, but it seemed all of his training had paid off.

—

 _Two Days Prior_

 _Leche stared down Karato much like a cat would a bug. It was rather unsettling._

" _Alrigh', time t'show you the signature move of d'at Hermit who taught mah sisters," Leche declared, giving him a look that challenged him to contradict her. He didn't. "It's a powerful move called the Kamehameha Wave. Only use it if yah've got strength to spare and no one in the crossfire. Copy me." She sunk down into a pose and held her hands at her side. Karato blinked before he copied her. Blue energy began to gather in her hands._

" _Ka-me—" blue energy gathering in her hands grew larger, "—ha-me-ha!" She threw her hands forwards and slightly up_ _,_ _aiming into the sky. The beam was impressive and Leche slumped forwards onto her face._

" _Leche!" Karato dashed over to her, taking a knee next to her. Roughly, he began shaking her, trying to revive her. "Leche! Are you okay?"_

 _It took several moments, but eventually she stirred. Even then, she gave him a stoic look, her voice still as strong as ever despite how exhausted she appeared. "Only use it when yah have to or yah might end up dead. As ah am, ah can't use it in a fight just yet. Shoul' it come down to it, use it as yahr last resort. Promise me."_

—

Karato felt fine, maybe winded but nowhere near as week as Leche had been after she'd shown it to him. Was this another Saiyan thing? Unfortunately, Karato didn't have time to dwell on it.

Sooner than he had expected, Gero had returned and with a vengeance, blasting through the air at breakneck speeds. The flurry of kicks were as fast as ever, leaving Karato on the defensive, doing his best to block each and every kick. Before he even knew it, Piccolo jumped in, throwing a punch towards Gero's head, only for the older man to easily block it. The next thing either of them knew, they were both blocking Gero's attacks, barely avoiding kicks and punches as their arms took the brunt of the blows.

"Kid, can you hold him off on your own for a few moments?" Piccolo asked.

"I can try," Karato said.

"Y-Y-You won't get me with that-that trick so easily, P-Piccolo," Gero sneered. In response, the alien merely smirked as he shot a hand out, pointing two fingers at the man. Barely a second past before a beam fired from his fingertips, a second beam swirling around the first. Unable to react, Gero took the blast to his shoulder, obliterating it and causing the rest of his arm to fall off.

"You fell for _that_ one." Piccolo's smirk was vicious just before he vanished from sight. He reappeared at Gero's more vulnerable side, swinging a kick towards him. Gero ducked to a side, allowing the kick to sail by harmlessly.

That was when Karato rejoined the fight, ramming his shoulder into the old man's back. This sent him lunging forward, where Piccolo clasped his hands together, holding them above his head before swinging them down and delivering a jackhammer blow to Gero's head. The blow sent Gero flying to the ground, making a crater at his impact site.

For a brief moment, Karato contemplated the alien's fighting style. Piccolo fought more like Param and Kaidon did than any of the others he'd encountered with the Zeta Force. That was something worth pondering about later.

Returning his attention to Gero, he noticed the old man getting back to his feet. From where he floated, he could see the rest of his fake skin was gone, revealing a silver skeletal form beneath.

"I thought he couldn't get any uglier," Karato commented. _Definitely channeling the inner Param and Kaidon there, eh, Karato?_

"Never say that kid; the universe takes it as a personal challenge," Piccolo said.

"Haven't you organic fools figured out you can't w-w-win?" Gero demanded heatedly. Before either of them could move, the robot thrust an arm up above his head and fired a large yellow blast. All Karato was able to do was try to block it, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Unfortunately, it was too much as he felt himself being pushed back, slowly overwhelmed by the attack.

—

" _Watch t'is." Leche shot a blast into the air, using the swing of her arm to cause the beam arc through the air. A moment later, she then fired another beam further ahead of the first, the two colliding and exploding in midair. "Sometimes t' only way t' block energy or "ki" is with more of it."_

—

Slowly, Karato shifted his hands to a side, cupping his hands together. Gero's beam burned into his body, further pushing him back, but that was a small price he would have to pay.

"Ka...me," he chanted as he gathered his ki. "Ha...me...Ha!" Thrusting his arms in front of him, he set off the Kamehameha Wave and was surprised that the blue beam immediately pushed back against Gero's beam.

"Masenko Ha!" A red blast joined the blue one and the yellow blast Gero had sent out was slowly pushed back. Karato poured more energy into the Kamehameha and Piccolo seemed to do the same for his beam.

—

"N-o-No-no-no- **no!** " This was not happening! Gero was not losing to these inferior organics and especially not the negligible threat that was this pathetic descendant of Goku. He was at maximum capacity for his output and could draw no more power. The beams...they were becoming too much for his arm to sustain. _Damage level critical,_ his internal sensors blared in his head. His own blast and the other blasts turned against him. _Catastroph—_

—

A large explosion blasted out in all directions. Blinding light caused Karato and Piccolo to end their respective attacks, shielding their faces with their arms. It took some time, but when the light cleared, all that was left of Gero was nothing more than a burnt up CPU that crumbled in the wind. Karato and Piccolo watched it plummet pathetically towards the ground, a much larger crater having formed from their combined blast.

They did it; it was finally _over_. Piccolo glanced over at Karato with a small smirk on his face. _The_ _k_ _id really pulled through._ He opened his mouth to compliment him, when Karato's eyes rolled up into his head. Piccolo's eyes widened before he dashed over to the youth, barely catching the now unconscious Saiyan in time.

Making sure he had a good grip on the kid, Piccolo looked up to survey the battlefield. The alter-humans had stopped in their attack, either hovering in midair, or standing still on the ground. The members of the Zeta Force were staring in bewilderment at this change, each looking to the others in confusion.

That was when one of them, a Dr. Shin if he wasn't mistaken, floated over to them. "Is it just me or are these alter-humans not moving?" he asked.

"I'd say so," Piccolo grunted. He then jerked his head towards the crater below them. "I'd wager it has something to do with Gero being destroyed."

Readjusting his grip on Karato, he then looked to Dr. Shin. "You alright with handling those guys on your own?" he asked. Dr. Shin looked at the Zeta Force.

"I think we can handle these guys," he responded back. Even now, Piccolo could only detect slight spasm from the alter-humans, but no further movement.

"Good." Piccolo descended to the ground, careful of Karato. Didn't want to do any _more_ damage to the kid. The Zeta force was really rallying after their nearly embarrassing defeat. _Guess all it took for them to realize they were better than those bums was a show of force on their side_.

Piccolo noticed the few remaining scraps of the CPU had ended up not far from where he landed. With a malicious grin, he stomped his foot down grinding the remaining piece into silicon dust.

No more Gero; his reign of terror was done.

—

 _End Scrap Gero Saga_

 **Team Dragon Star is a group of collaborative writers who combine our efforts to bring you stories like this one. We're an open group, meaning that everyone is welcome to apply to join on our forums. It presents a great opportunity for anyone looking to better their writing skills or be apart of a writing community.**


End file.
